Greatest NRL comeback awaits South Sydney after 2023 capitulation

South Sydney won’t spend the next month ladder watching as they try to follow up the greatest capitulation in NRL history with the biggest comeback of this century.

The Rabbitohs’ three straight wins has given them a mathematical chance of reaching this year’s finals, now only five points outside of the top eight.

Given their woeful for-and-against, it’s likely the Bunnies will need to win nine of their last 11 games to do so.

Last on the table as recently as a fortnight ago, Souths are well aware that things can change drastically in the second half of the season.

Last year they became the first team in history to miss a top-eight finals series after being first on the ladder in round 11 or later.

This year, they must create a new kind of history after sacking coach Jason Demetriou in April.

No team this century have gone from last in round 13 to play finals, with Brisbane the last side to do so in 1999.

But even still, the Rabbitohs believe the key to making history is putting the finals out of their mind.

“That hasn’t been spoken about. The last thing we want to do is start looking at the table,” five-eighth Cody Walker said.

“Our focus for the last couple of weeks is just been improving each and every week on what we’ve done the week before.

“And that belief will grow. The confidence will grow. We put 22 points on a fantastic side (against Brisbane on Friday night).”

South Sydney’s run home is not easy, beginning with an injury-depleted Manly side on Saturday night.

They face seven of the current top-eight teams, including each of the top four in Melbourne, Penrith, Cronulla and the Dolphins.

But there is also no doubt this is a different Souths team, going from conceding 34.8 points per game across their first 10 matches to 13.3 in the past three.

Nowhere is that turnaround clearer than in Jacob Gagai’s try-saving tackle on Ezra Mam on Friday night.

That was in stark contrast to the kind of efforts that allowed Penrith to score untouched from a 20-metre tap last month.

“We’re built on that effort,” Walker said.

“For 60 minutes of that Penrith game we were right in it. Every week we’ve improved that area. Whether that’s five minutes, 10 minutes.

“We’re probably enjoying some of the moments in the game now, not letting things in the game get to you or focusing too hard on getting everything perfect.

“The game is not about that. The game is about trying to respond to things not going to plan.

“We’ve upped our completion rate, which has been poor at the start of the year. Our kick chase, our discipline out of yardage has been the best it’s been.”