‘Filthy’ ex-Souths star Josh Mansour blasts coach Jason Demetriou for being two-faced – and Bunnies fans couldn’t agree more

Former South Sydney Rabbitohs winger Josh Mansour has added fuel to the fire at his old club by claiming underinvested coach Jason Demetriou was two-faced during his time at Redfern.

Mansour retired from the NRL at the end of the 2022 season after two years with the Rabbitohs, including a frustrating final season that saw him bounce in and out of the first grade.

Now, speak further The Bye Round Podcastthe former international has opened up for Demetriou, who is under fire after South Sydney’s 0-2 start to the season.

The Rabbitohs crashed from title favorites in 2023 to missing the final, with club favorite Sam Burgess quitting his position as assistant coach after reportedly clashing with Demetriou.

It was reported that Burgess’s concerns that players including Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker were receiving preferential treatment fell on deaf ears at Redfern.

Now Mansour has admitted that he also did not get along with the coach.

“I’ll be very honest: I didn’t agree with the coach and with JD, which is a shame,” Mansour said.

‘We just didn’t have a good relationship. Every time he spoke to me he didn’t live up to what he said.

‘I let it sink in. Once, twice, there were just multiple conversations that didn’t go the way he said they would.

‘I am a man of my word. I held him during every conversation we had.

“I was frustrated man, I was so frustrated that last year.”

Mansour went on to talk about how his interactions with Demetriou left him bitter and disillusioned, as the coach broke his word about playing him in the first grade and unfairly dropped him for reasons he could not properly explain.

The former Penrith star said Demetriou told him he was playing, then dropped him because he ‘needed a rest’, despite it being the first game of the year.

Later in the season, Mansour was dropped for missing tackles from the week before, but when asked to show him a video of what he had done wrong, the coach changed course and said he was being demoted because of things he had done ‘weeks ago’. .

‘I let all those situations get the best of me, because you know why? “I always lived by controlling what you can control,” he said.

‘I couldn’t control that and I let my emotions get the better of me again.

“I was just going through the motions, I didn’t care, I didn’t care, I just didn’t want to be there.

“I was just frustrated because if I wasn’t going to play there, why stick around there? I could have looked somewhere else and I would have gotten a release or something.

“Just try something, try to find a set time for first grade.

“But unfortunately I was stuck there.”

Now, fans have praised Mansour for his honesty and for shining a light on what went wrong with the Bunnies.

“It seemed like a VERY honest interview. It actually helps to understand how the boys are playing at the moment and what Sam B meant by ‘special treatment’.” a fan posted.

“Players just want honesty and to be told where they are falling short so they can improve and hopefully keep a place in the first grade,” another added.

“JD’s days are numbered. I feel like he already lost the play group,” another posted.

Mansour went on to describe some of those conversations and how they played out in the podcast.

After being secured a place in the first round to play the Brisbane Broncos in 2022, the winger was called to Demetriou’s office where he received the news that he was being ‘rested’.

‘I thought: give me some rest that week? It’s round one. Why would you name me if you felt like I needed rest?’ said Mansur.

An ankle injury to Blake Taaffe meant Mansour would be a late call-up to the side that lost 11-4 to the Broncos, with the winger scoring the only points for Souths on the night.

He clung to his place as the Rabbitohs found form, winning three of four matches, including torching the Manly Sea Eagles 40-22.

But during the captain’s run before the following week’s match, Mansour was called to Demetriou’s office again.

The frustrated winger said the coach tried to drop him again due to two missed tackles against Manly, including a situation where the Sea Eagles had a four-on-two overlap at short end.

The other missed tackle came when Mansour bumped into Reuben Garrick before grabbing him again and taking him to the ground.

“I say, ‘Am I going to get impeached for this?’ said Mansur.

‘He just couldn’t give me an answer.

‘He’d been trying to rewind for weeks, trying to show me my missed tackles.

‘I ask ‘am I being dropped because of my performance last week or am I being dropped because of something that happened weeks ago?’.

‘He didn’t answer me. From that day on, I completely checked out.

“I slammed my chair and said, ‘This is fucking nonsense’ and I walked out.”

Finally, almost two months later, Demetriou broke the ice between them by telling Mansour he was close to a recall, but then picked Izaak Thompson to debut.

The final insult came towards the end of the season when Demetriou decided to make a highlights video of players leaving the club.

Mansour was the first on the video, despite never indicating he was leaving or retiring.

“I wasn’t surprised by all the things that had happened before, but it was unfortunately a very sad time to leave Souths,” he recalls.