Are we headed for a Rabbitohs replay in 2021? Alex Johnston, one of three remaining Bunnies from the club’s drought-breaking 2014 triumph, certainly thinks so; everywhere he looks, there are similarities.
Eight seasons ago, the Rabbitohs snapped a 43-year record that hung around the club’s neck — Sam Burgess led South Sydney to a grand final victory, ending the cardinal-and-myrtle outfit’s lean years.
That year, a young winger, Alex Johnston, was playing his first NRL season.
Seven years and 164 games later, the 26-year-old tryscoring machine finds himself just 80 minutes away from another grand final.
Funnily enough, the Bunnies star says, it’s starting to feel like a Rabbitohs replay: just like that momentous Souths march to the big dance, and their win over the Bulldogs, there’s a “feeling the air.”
“I reckon the belief, we’ve definitely got the belief like we did back then. Feels the same.”
Funnily enough, the Rabbitohs started their 2014 finals campaign from third place, just like this year. In 2014, they bowled over the second-place team (then Manly) in an upset victory, and marched straight to the preliminary final.
This time, beating the Panthers is even better, Johnston claimed.
“I said it last time we played [Penrith], we lost but I thought we took a lot of belief out of that game knowing if we played our game and complete we can definitely beat them. We put on pretty much an 80-minute performance and got the chocolates.
The Rabbitohs star continued: “We’ve already got that belief for sure, it’s just about trying to maintain that for the next couple of games. As I said it’s just one game and we’ve got two more.”
This time around, though, there’s an added onus on the Rabbitohs squad. Veteran halfback Adam Reynolds is jetting off to Brisbane next year to take up a multi-year deal with the Broncos.
Dane Gagai (Knights) and Jaydn Su’A (Dragons) are out the door at Redfern soon too.
Even coach and commander Wayne Bennett, who did Wayne Bennett things ahead of the Panthers battle and drew the spotlight onto himself, rather than his players, is in his final year with the red-and-green club. After the season’s final whistle, the NRL supercoach will become a free agent again.
The looming departures play a role, Johnston said, in wanting to get that “final full stop” in another era of the South Sydney team that has shone over the past few years.
“It adds to it, yeah,” the tryscoring Bunny told gathered NRL media, “but also I think we’ve all got that desire that’s been building up over the last few years. This year like every year we’ve just got to do our best and hopefully get the job done.
“I know last year we had a lot of bodies out and a lot of guys hurt. This year will be different.”
