Taken to school by Melbourne, South Sydney coach Michael Maguire believes his players have learned the lessons to refloat their sinking NRL finals campaign.
The Rabbitohs’ 24-6 loss in Saturday’s qualifying final deflated the feelgood factor around a rare finals appearance for the club.
Early ill-discipline and what appeared finals nerves – though Maguire denied his players had frozen up – left Souths trailing 18-0 at halftime and the match effectively over.
The ultra-professional Storm didn’t give Souths a sniff for the rest of the match, defending brilliantly and only letting them cross the tryline once with game already lost.
Yet Maguire is bullish the Rabbitohs can bounce back, and the experience of being towelled up by the red-hot Storm can prove valuable in next weekend’s sudden-death clash with the winners of Sunday’s Canberra-Cronulla qualifying final.
“We won’t forget it – we’ll get a lot out of it actually,” Maguire said.
“Early on our discipline allowed Melbourne to build a lot of pressure. It’s obviously disappointing, but what’s in front of us is what we can control.”
With centre Matt King likely to be told on Sunday he’ll miss the remainder of the season after suffering a suspected broken arm against the Storm, the Rabbitohs face being even shorter on finals experience.
Maguire believes the likes of Michael Crocker, Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess provide enough to make them formidable against whoever they come up against next weekend.
“We’ve handled that pressure many times in the past. We just didn’t handle it as well as what we could have (against Melbourne),” Maguire said.
“I’ve got enough experience in this team. Melbourne took their chances. We didn’t.”