SHANE RICHARDSON took his place back in the hot seat as South Sydney chief executive yesterday and immediately promised that the Rabbitohs would survive - without having to take the National Rugby League's $8 million bait and relocate to Gosford.
Richardson also denied that former premiership-winning coach John Lang's appointment to the club as a football consultant was because the management of the Rabbitohs lacked faith in coach Jason Taylor's ability to get the team out of a hole. Taylor and Souths co-owner Russell Crowe had a heated meeting at Darlinghurst coffee shop Bar Coluzzi early yesterday morning, presumably while discussing the appointment of Lang.
Observers reported Taylor was extremely unhappy and waved his arms about while Crowe listened on stony-faced, chain smoking. "They were super grim," a patron said. "Not happy chappies. Rusty was chain smoking. He was fairly calm, smoking darts while Taylor was really agitated and saying things like, 'This bloke has let me down' and 'That bloke has let me down'. Taylor was also saying things like, 'What's the time frame for this?'
"He was going on about blokes in the club, blokes that had let him down."
Speaking to the Herald last night, Taylor played down the suggestion of drama between him and Crowe, saying: "I'm not normally a coffee drinker, but I had two this morning and I thoroughly enjoyed them."
The dramatic changes at executive level after a marathon, 5½-hour board meeting were described by former Souths boss George Piggins as "like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic". Piggins said the Rabbitohs remained "a club in crisis".
The changes saw Rabbitohs co-owner Peter Holmes a Court quit as executive chairman of the club, although he will continue as a board member. Nicholas Pappas was appointed as non-executive chairman, with Richardson as CEO. Lang, currently based on the Gold Coast, will move back to Sydney. Holmes a Court has been criticised for featuring too prominently in the media and only last week created headlines when he said he could not guarantee Souths would survive, because of a funding crisis that has put all Sydney clubs under enormous pressure.
But when asked yesterday if he could guarantee the Rabbitohs wouldn't fold, Richardson replied: "Souths will survive. We have grown our membership and corporate sales. What we have to do now is cut the cloth to fit the suit. We have to run a tight footy club.
"I don't think it's a case of Souths having financial problems. The game has got well-documented financial problems that affect all clubs, but we are not as badly affected as some other clubs because we don't rely on poker-machine money."
Asked if Souths would have to take the big bucks on offer to play out of Bluetongue Stadium on the Central Coast, Richardson replied: "We've just signed a 10-year deal to play at ANZ Stadium. We've got no intention of going to Gosford."
The Rabbitohs issued a media release that included a series of carefully crafted quotes from Pappas, Holmes a Court and Crowe, designed to put as positive a spin as possible on the changes at the club. Holmes a Court told the Herald he was looking forward to going to the Rabbitohs-Dragons game on Sunday.
Souths, surprise finalists last year, have made an awful start to the season. They have just one win and nine losses and are anchored to the bottom of the competition table. The appointment of Lang will be seen by many as an admission by the club that Taylor is out of his depth and needs help from a wily old veteran.
Richardson was adamant that was not the case, saying: "This is the start of John Lang's managerial career, as much as anything. He will be working with me in the office, on recruitment, club structure - a lot of things to do with a football club. And he'll be there if Jason wants to use him. But Jason is the coach. He'll be running the training sessions and planning for the games, as always. "Langy' won't be standing over the top of him."
Taylor said: "If you wanted some advice and you had someone like John Lang on hand, you would be mad not to go to him."
