‘Lowest point in career’:
Chickens take off Souths reeling

Jason Demetriou has depicted South Sydney’s 48-6 misfortune to the Sydney Chickens as the most reduced point of his career after a week within the highlight finished lamentably for the Rabbitohs.

Friday night’s NRL capitulation at Allianz Stadium takes off Souths winless through the opening three rounds and at chance of wrapping up the end of the week final on the stepping stool for the primary time since 2010.

A halfback switch, Latrell Mitchell’s debase radio meet and Josh Mansour’s evaluate of Demetriou all combined for an phenomenal week of off-field investigation at the Rabbitohs.

But on the field it was the same ancient story as error-prone assault and slips in concentration frequented Souths, the Chickens ruling their biting rivals from the beginning.

“It harms,” Demetriou said.

“It’s likely the most reduced point in my career right presently.

“The monkey’s on our back and you’ll be able see that in our resolve at times. There’s a few exertion there, but it’s put into the off-base places.

“There’s as it were one way out and that’s remaining together and battling, preparing well another week and getting back on the horse.”

Within the as it were acrid note for the Chickens, Sam Walker collected the elbow of Souths enroll Jack Wighton and cleared out the field concussed after featuring with a first-half twofold.

Back-up five-eighth Sandon Smith took the reins from that point to guarantee the Chickens would run absent with the amusement.

“I thought it was set up truly from the folks at the begin, truly straightforward, clear play,” said Chickens coach Trent Robinson.

“At that point we took our openings.”

Lachlan Ilias’s replacement Dean Hawkins could not spark Souths’ attack alongside Cody Walker in the halves, but he had little chance to shine because the Rabbitohs continuously made errors.

Siliva Havili, starting in place of the benched Damien Cook, threw a forward pass out of dummy half on the last tackle of the Rabbitohs’ first set in the red zone as a sign of things to come.

Sean Keppie, Jacob Host and Cody Walker each came up with errors at close range as the Rabbitohs fell 18-0 behind at the half.

“We made a lot of errors and put ourselves under a lot of pressure, and to back it up we weren’t resilient enough to defend our line,” said Souths captain Cam Murray.

Walker, James Tedesco and Dom Young had their fingerprints all over the early advantage.

Young nabbed the first try off a scrum play in the opening three minutes, before receiving a beautiful cut-out pass from Tedesco that led to Walker’s second.

Walker had earlier put two grubber kicks past the Rabbitohs’ defensive line to add his name to the scoresheet.

Club debutant Jack Wighton and Alex Johnston struggled for chemistry on the Rabbitohs’ left edge, with two of the Roosters’ three first-half tries coming when Johnston jammed in.

“It’s Jack’s first game, he wasn’t going to come in and be the saviour,” Demetriou said.

Wighton appeared to hobble with a sore knee late in the game.

“I don’t think it’s anything major,” Demetriou said.

As they have in previous weeks, the Rabbitohs were able to piece things together in patches, looking their strongest just after Walker left the field.

But Smith stifled the Rabbitohs’ momentum by putting up a kick for utility Connor Watson, who scored in his first game since late 2022.

Mitchell was jeered by the Roosters’ home crowd with every touch of the ball and left to the sin bin in the final 15 minutes for impeding Tedesco on a kick chase.

Smith threw the ball that confirmed Joey Manu’s second-half double barely a minute later, before Tedesco burst over for two tries in six minutes to help the Roosters pile on the pain.