South Sydney’s 13,000km journey on the road to NRL’s holy grail

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South Sydney are about to embark on a gruelling five-week road trip, during which they will travel a remarkable 13,000 kilometres and play in three Australian states.

The quirks of the NRL draw for the run to the finals – complicated by the women’s football World Cup in Australia – mean that while the Rabbitohs hit the road, the Panthers will leave Sydney just once.

Fellow title contenders South Sydney will fly to the Sunshine Coast next weekend, catch a charter flight to Tamworth the following week, spend a week in Perth, then head to Cairns and finally take the relatively short bus ride up the M1 to Newcastle.

Little wonder the players were making the most of the Sydney sunshine during this weekend’s bye, particularly the Origin quartet of Cody Walker, Damien Cook, Cameron Murray and Keaon Koloamatangi.

Coach Jason Demetriou and his staff were aware of the logistical nightmare that awaited them when the NRL draw was released, and they have made a high priority of meeting the needs of the players’ partners and families.

Injuries to the likes of representative stars Latrell Mitchell and Jai Arrow, who are likely to return from calf and ankle issues respectively against the Broncos in round 21, have limited the opportunities for Souths players to spend long spells together.

The Rabbitohs have played in Queensland and New Zealand four times this season, and been victorious on each occasion.

“We’ll be racking up the frequent flyer points,” Demetriou said. “Even when we went to New Zealand a couple of weeks ago, we were without Latrell, Jai and Campbell Graham, so it will be good to get the group back together, and we do enjoy spending time together.

“The next five weeks you have to factor in a few things, including your training loads.

“There’s also the family element, which is important, and making sure our partners and kids have the things they need when the boys are away for a long period of time, or consecutive weeks. That can take its toll.

Cody Walker was man of the match in Origin III and will be key to the Rabbitohs’ charge to the finals.Credit: Getty

“There’s no shortage of motivation at this time of year. You come out of the Origin period and there’s an excitement about what the team can achieve this year. It all starts next week.”

Souths will fly to the Sunshine Coast on Thursday, return home on Saturday, then charter a flight to Tamworth, at a cost of about $35,000, where they will play Wests Tigers on Friday, July 28. They fly home after that game and will be in their own beds just after midnight.

“The point of that is to make sure the players get the weekend at home with their families – a lot of our players have young kids, so we want to get that balance right,” Demetriou said.

The Redfern club will then jet across to Perth on Monday, July 31, to play Cronulla as part of an Optus Stadium double-header on the Saturday, then race back for the round 24 clash against St George Illawarra at Barlow Park in Far North Queensland on August 12.

Rabbitohs road trip

Round 21: Sydney to Sunshine Coast 1640km

Round 22: Sydney to Tamworth 610km

Round 23: Sydney to Perth 6600km

Round 24: Sydney to Cairns 3900km

Round 25: Sydney to Newcastle 320km

Total: 13,070km

Distances are for the return trip.

South Sydney’s push for premiership success is sure to get a boost from the extra confidence the club’s NSW players bring back to the squad following their 24-10 game three win in Sydney.

Walker was man of the match on Wednesday night, Murray among the best on the ground, Cook made a strong return to the starting line-up and Koloamatangi excelled in his first Origin outing.

“Cam and Cody linked well, but so did Cooky and Cody; they’re comfortable with each other, we saw that on the biggest stage, and Keaon was outstanding in his debut game – he was solid defensively and showed class for NSW’s first try,” Demetriou said.

“He comes out of that game knowing he’s ready to do more at that level, which is exciting.”

Mitchell is on track to play against the Broncos after strongly on Thursday. He will rejoin the main training group early this week.

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