Stability the key for Demetriou after star trio re-sign

Rabbitohs coach Jason Demetriou said the club's efforts to re-sign star trio Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Damien Cook before Christmas has brought stability to the side ahead of the 2023 season.

The Rabbitohs are the only NRL club yet to go to the market for 2023, highlighting Demetriou's confidence in the squad he took over from Wayne Bennett last season.

Demetriou used the key word “stability” at Wednesday's press conference after Mitchell (2027) and Walker (2025) extended their deals, less than a week after the Rabbitohs confirmed Cook was also staying for a further two seasons.

"Stability is important. I don't think I've ever been in an NRL side where we haven't had a single new player in,” Demetriou said.

“I think that stability and that excitement, you can feel it in pre-season from the playing group.

“We created an environment where those players feel like they can be successful and a bit of that was on me to make sure as coach I was able to give them the platform to feel like they can achieve something.

“I feel like we did that as the season grew last year and I feel like we’ve put ourselves in a good place for not only next season but the next few years.

“We want to be the best.”

Demetriou faced an enormous task in 2022 of not only replacing Bennett in his rookie year as coach, but also introducing a new captain in Cameron Murray, a new halfback in Lachlan Ilias and managing the hamstring injury of Mitchell.

After overcoming a slow start in his first season in charge to come within one game of back-to-back NRL grand finals, Demetriou said he’s ready to push past any “doubt” and embrace the expectations that come with fielding the star-studded roster that has been built at Redfern.

“With everything being new, there was a bit of doubt and that's understandable,” he said.

“I had a little bit of doubt in myself, a little bit of doubt whether Lachie could do the job, a bit of doubt over our new captain.

“Obviously losing some key players as well. But I feel like that doubt has gone now and we can start the season really confidently. You can feel that in pre-season at the moment… that's probably been the most important thing.”

After five successive preliminary finals, as well as the 2021 grand final loss to Penrith, the Rabbitohs still have no premiership to show for their consistent success.

However, with Mark Nicholls and Kodi Nikorima (Dolphins) the only members of the side that lost to Penrith in the preliminary final to have departed, Demetriou is confident his side has taken away some key lessons.

“One of the big focuses will be learning some lessons from last season’s prelim,” he said.

“Not the last five years [because] every year is different. Every squad is different. But I definitely feel like there are some good learnings to take from last year.

“The expectations are to turn up every week and be more consistent. I think that's probably been our biggest problem and because of that we've rode the emotions quite high and low in the season.

“That takes its toll by the back end. A real focus for us is to get some consistency in our preparation and then also some consistency in our season. If we can do that, I think we'll be in a good place come September.”