Rabbitohs manager Jason Demetriou has reportedly apologized to his players for liking a comment on social media that upset two of his players.
Demetriou claims he accidentally liked the fan comment on a post on the club's official Instagram page which slammed Liam Knight and Jacob Host after a Round 13 loss to the Raiders.
The comment read: “Liam Knight and Jacob Host played for us tonight. It's a miracle we didn't lose at 50 with these clowns pretending to be first graders.”
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Demetriou didn't like the comment and told The SMH on Tuesday he didn't know he even liked it and has since told Host it was an accident.
Knight was unselected for six weeks after the loss and only played one more game for the Souths before joining the Bulldogs mid-season.
The Rabbitohs are facing internal unrest after reportedly Demetriou failed to set star duo Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell up to the same standards as the rest of the squad.
Officials from the club's football department have reportedly expressed their concerns to the Rabbitohs officials. These include assistant coaches Sam Burgess and John Morris.
The Souths then face their arch-rivals, the Roosters, in Round 27 this week, who will likely determine whether they play in the Finals.
The Rabbitohs officials invested heavily in Mitchell, sending him to the United States to work with specialist Bill Knowles to help him recover from a hamstring injury.
Teammates and those in power were also reportedly left with a bad taste in their mouths after footage emerged of the star full-back having a midweek beer with country singer Luke Combs on stage.
Speaking on NRL360, veteran rugby league reporter Phil Rothfield revealed Walker and Demetriou had a falling out following their loss to the Sharks.
“Let's start with the rumor about Cody Walker and the manager… after they lost to Cronulla in Perth there was a heavy slugfest,” Rothfield said.
“I've spoken to people about it and they insist that while they disagreed, it was definitely not personal. Cody has no problem working with Jason.”
“There's a reason why you're a top-flight club and you're not winning, it's no coincidence,” Anasta said.
“There's a story going on right now that Latrell and Cody aren't held to the same standards as the other players on the team, it's getting louder and louder.
“Discipline comes from standards that emerge from training and from transferring the standards set in training to the football field.” They rank last for errors and second for completion rates.”
Anasta also highlighted a number of times Mitchell stayed on backplay or in the wrong place on defense against the Knights.
“Tell me another full-back in the game that stands so still and doesn't support in the middle of the scrum,” Anasta said.
“Tell me whatever you want to tell me and he's not solely to blame, he's the leader of this club. He's the barometer and once he starts making better decisions and wears his heart on his sleeve, they'll get better.”
While the Daily Telegraph's Brent Read questioned why Mitchell was solely blamed, both Rothfield and Anasta said the footage painted a clear picture.
“Done, this really is a bloody video. It shows me a lazy footballer who made over a million dollars and didn't play much football,” Rothfield said.
“We don't just blame him, you take it like it's an attack on him. The majority of this team is playing well below average at the moment,” said Anasta.
“It's been a few months now, it's not an isolated case. We talk about the standards and discipline as a leader, we talk about things off the field.”
“I know where he's coming from, we don't want to let Latrell do it all, but this video is so damning and I don't think Latrell wants to see that,” Rothfield added.
“When you have that much money and he has twice as much as Dylan Edwards, you have to look at Edwards' stakes.
“They were the complete opposite of what we just saw… That was a desperate, season-ending game yesterday and from the video I saw he didn't actually show up.”
It also emerged that a Rabbitohs boss has approached Wayne Bennett about a possible return to Redfern after his stint with the Dolphins ends.
However, club officials denied the move.
Originally published as Jason Demetriou apologizes for Instagram comment as ‘damaging video' of Latrell Mitchell emerges
