History has a tendency to repeat itself, with rugby league no exception as it often unfurls in all-too-familiar patterns. The Brisbane Broncos will be beaten handsomely by the Melbourne Storm, Ricky Stuart will have the air of a man - in his post-match presser - who has been wronged regardless of the result and no team outside of the top-four will lay their hands on the premiership trophy.
South Sydney is the latest side which believes it can beat the odds. They are about to test their luck when they meet with Penrith in Saturday’s preliminary final.
“I’ve never watched it. I lived it, so I remember it pretty well,” Damien Cook said in the build-up to their much-anticipated clash.
The No.9 was talking about the last significant time the two teams shared the stage – grand final day 2021. The Bunnies fell agonisingly short against the Panthers, losing by two points with an intercept try from Stephen Crichton proving the difference.
“I remember the feeling of it after the game, too. I’ve definitely used it to come back in the pre-season a lot hungrier.”
The Bunnies enter into this weekend’s clash knowing that history is stacked against them. Since 1908, 111 of the 113 teams to have won the premiership have done so having finished the regular season inside the top-four.
It is why coaches plan their whole year around gaining entry into that exclusive club in the penthouse suite of the ladder.
From there, they can see their title tilt expand before them on the horizon. Their vision not obscured by sudden death matches week after week, before they even get to the big dance.
This is the proposition the Bunnies have had to live with for some time. They had to make up ground to even finish in the top-eight, due to their slow start.
To their credit, they improved significantly at the midway point of the year when their talisman Latrell Mitchell returned to the side. They ended up in 7th spot with an elimination final against the Roosters their reward.
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They got through that test, before then easily dispatching with the Cronulla Sharks to book their fifth consecutive appearance in the preliminary finals.
“It means nothing if you don’t give yourself a chance of going on to win it,” Cook said of Souths’ making a habit out of reaching the prelims.
“We’ll be using our experience from the past.”
The Rabbitohs should also draw inspiration from the past, in the form of a team who won the comp nearly three decades ago.
The parallels between the Bunnies and the premiership-winning Canterbury side from 1995 can be easily traced. That Bulldogs outfit also knew what it felt like to lose a grand final, having been beaten by the star-studded Raiders the previous season.
They surged through the finals the following year, winning three do-or-die clashes, before beating the heavily-favoured Manly Sea Eagles 17-4 to claim the premiership.
It was a remarkable run which Souths will be hoping to emulate. Although, they'll certainly have their work cut out for them as the Bulldogs remain one of only two teams to ever claim the premiership after finishing outside of the top-four.
Two years before Terry Lamb held the trophy aloft, Brisbane became the first team to achieve the feat. It capped back-to-back premierships for the Wayne Bennett coached side.
Both of these outliers shared a common thread of having had recent premiership experience before they beat the odds. South Sydney has this too, having tasted defeat in last year's grand final.
There aren't many others who know the hardships of falling short quite as intimately as the Bunnies. After all, they have reached the preliminary finals in five consecutive years yet still have zero trophies to show for it.
You can look to the absence of Mitchell for their past two finals series and wonder what might have been.
A torn hamstring in 2020 brought a premature end to his season, while his ugly tackle on Joey Manu the following campaign ruled him out of making the third grand final appearance of his career. But there is no use now in dwelling in the past.
“Losing that game last year by two points, obviously a lot goes into it physically and mentally throughout the year,” Cook said.
“There had been a few years building up to that game, so to fall short you never want to have that feeling again.
“There’s no doubt that you use that motivation of wanting to get yourself back there and not miss another opportunity to win a grand final.”
Brisbane finished fifth when they bucked the trend for the first time ever in 1993, while the Bulldogs came in sixth two years later. The Rabbitohs will have to go one better and do it from seventh, although if history has taught us anything it’s that it has a tendency to eventually repeat itself.
