Former South Sydney captain Roy Asotasi says coach Michael Maguire is the reason why the Rabbitohs can break their 43-year NRL premiership drought despite losing several players, including himself.
After playing the last seven seasons for the Rabbitohs, powerful forward Asotasi is back in Australia with English Super League club Warrington Wolves on a three-week training camp.
He was one of several forward losses for Souths in the off-season, with Jeff Lima and Nathan Peats joining other clubs and Michael Crocker retiring.
The Rabbitohs have also lost backs Dylan Farrell, Justin Hunt, Matt King and Andrew Everingham.
Their recruits include experienced back Joel Reddy and forwards Chris Grevsmuhl and Joe Picker.
Souths haven’t won a first-grade premiership since 1971 and fell at the preliminary final in 2012 and 2013, Maguire’s first two years in charge.
“Definitely they’ve got the right guy at the helm in Michael Maguire,” Asotasi said in Sydney on Wednesday.
“Obviously he’s been pretty disappointed the last couple of years to fall short of a grand final, but he’s always working.
“He’s always got a plan, so I’m glad I’m out of there, not in a bad way, but because they’ve got a younger squad.
“I definitely think this year they could go all the way again and obviously fight the Roosters, because they are pretty good opponents.”
The Wolves trained alongside the Rabbitohs last Friday and Asotasi revealed he hadn’t initially been looking forward to returning to their Redfern Oval headquarters.
“It was my first official training back with the Wolves, so to go back to Redfern, I was dreading it all week,” Asotasi said.
“But at the same time it was good just to get back and catch up with the old teammates and we had a good hitout.”
The Wolves, grand final losers in the last two Super League seasons, trained with AFL club Sydney Swans on Wednesday.
“I think a lot of our backs probably learnt a lot,” Asotasi said.
“Obviously there’s a lot of catching involved, a lot of kicking and that features a lot in our game.
“For the forwards, its more about handling skills, but when it comes to the running, we’ll leave it to these (AFL) boys.”