Retired NRL winger Josh Mansour has opened up on his exit from the Rabbitohs and frosty relationship with coach Jason Demetriou, who he claims “didn’t live up to what he was saying.”
Speaking on James Graham’s The Bye Round podcast, Mansour relived his 174-game career, including the Panthers’ decision to show him the door after losing the 2020 grand final.
That exit opened the door for Mansour to join the Rabbitohs on a two-year deal. He played 11 games in his first season under coach Wayne Bennett but fell out favour the following year under new coach Demetriou.
The only place to watch every game of every round LIVE with no ad-breaks during play is Fox League, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
The 33-year-old admitted on The Bye Round that 2022 “was probably the toughest year of my career.”
He opened up on the friction between him and Demetriou and pinpointed the two incidents that led to it.
“I didn’t see eye-to-eye with the coach, which was a shame… we just didn’t have a good rapport,” he admitted.
“I feel like every time he spoke to me he didn’t live up to what he was saying and I let it get to me.
“There were multiple conversations that just didn’t go the way he was saying it was going to go. I’m a man of my word, I was holding him to every conversation we had.
“I was so frustrated that final year.
“It’s pre-season and he told me I was going to be on that right edge with ‘Stretch’ (Campbell Graham), he wants me to build my combination with him and he fully believed in me.
“Round 1 comes, he names the side on Tuesday, I was in the team and then on Thursday’s captain’s run I’m coming in and I get a text from him saying to come to his office.
“I thought it was a bit bizarre.
“He told me that he was going to rest me for that week. I was like, ‘rest me for that week? It’s Round 1, why would you name me if you thought I needed a rest?’
“And then he said ‘I just want you to get a couple of weeks under your belt’. I’m like ‘okay, no worries, all good’.
Hughes vs Luai: Ref contact compared | 00:40
I ended up becoming 18th man. Was I present that captain run? I was definitely not present, I didn’t want to be there. I was so off it.”
Taane Milne got the nod ahead of Mansour for Round 1. But as the rugby league Gods would have it, things quickly changed when Blake Taaffe, who was named at fullback, suffered an ankle injury at training.
Demetriou shifted Alex Johnston to fullback and recalled Mansour on the wing. He scored the Rabbitohs’ only try in their 11-4 loss to the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
There were “no conversations” with Demetriou afterwards, according to Mansour and he was dropped to reserve grade the following week when Latrell Mitchell returned from a suspension at fullback and Johnston moved back to the wing.
Mansour, however, earned a recall in Round 5 and retained his spot until Round 8 with South Sydney winning three of those four games.
He felt confident he’d be there again in Round 9 and although he was named in the team, things took a turn.
“He texted me again on captain’s run and I go ‘I think I know’. I had a feeling it was going to be the same conversation I had in Round 1.
“I walked to my locker (first) to see if my captain’s run jersey was hanging and it wasn’t there, so I already had my answer. I already knew what was going to happen.
“I walked in… and straight off the bat he goes ‘I’m going to rest you this week.’ I’m like ‘Oh, what for?’ So I pressed him — I didn’t say that the first time.
“He goes ‘I thought you missed too many tackles last week’. I go, ‘can you show me?’ And I made him bring it up, it was like two missed tackles.
“There was one, it was a four on two on the short side, 10 meters off our line and I had to sit on the lead. (Reuben) Garrick was at the back, I checked, released and Garrick tipped onto the winger and I tried diving on the last ditch tackle to get to (Christian) Tuipulotu.
“I’m like, ‘what do you want to do there? Like I did my best’. He said, ‘yeah that was a bit harsh’.
“And the other one was, I jammed Garrick at the back and I kind of just bumped off him, re-gripped and took him to the ground.
“I go, ‘am I getting dropped for that?’ And he just couldn’t answer me.
“Then he tried rewinding for weeks before… And I go, ‘am I getting dropped for my performance last week or am I getting to drop for something that was weeks ago?’
“He didn’t answer me.
“From that day on, I checked out, fully checked out. I slammed my chair in and I go, ‘this f***ing bulls**t and I walked out.
“I didn’t speak to him probably for like a month and a half.”
MORE NRL NEWS
TEAM TIPS: Souths set to swing axe as JD’s plan for in-bound Wighton revealed
TALKING POINTS: Rabbitohs’ shock halves shake-up; Benji’s season-defining decision
‘RIDICULOUS’: NRL blasted for charging Storm star who made contact with referee
‘ASTONISHING’: Americans react to Coates finish as ‘best try ever’ goes global
But then Mansour got a glimmer of hope that he’d get another chance in first grade — the Rabbitohs’ Round 21 clash with the Warriors on the Sunshine Coast.
“I was minding my own business in the gym, doing what I do, just prepping it for training and out of nowhere, he just come up to me in the gym and spoke to me.
“He goes, ‘I’m just going to let you know, you’re pretty close. I’m pretty happy with the way you’ve been training in reserve grade… you’ll be playing, you’re going to be playing soon’.
Demetriou then named the team and Mansour wasn’t included in the 17. There was a late change to the backline though — but it didn’t include Mansour. Izaac Thompson was promoted to the wing to make his NRL debut.
“I was so happy for Izaac but at the same time I was so filthy.
‘Wasn’t good enough for Dragons jersey’ | 00:31
“From there, well, I let all those situations get the best of me because you know what? I always used to live by (the saying of) control what you can control (but) I couldn’t control that.
“I let my emotions get the best of me yet again. I just was just going through the motions, I just didn’t care. I didn’t give a fuck… I just didn’t want to be there.
“I was just frustrated because if I wasn’t going to play there, why keep me there? I could have just looked elsewhere and I would have got a release or something… Try and find regular first grade time.
“But unfortunately, I was stuck there.”
Mansour finished up at the Rabbitohs at the end of that season but he copped one last blow before leaving the club — he found out he wasn’t going to be re-signed via a video.
“We get to the end of the year, we’re in the video room and they said ‘we’re going to put in a little farewell video for the guys that are leaving and want to thank them for their time’,” Mansour recalled
“I was the first one there. I didn’t even know that I was leaving. I was the first one on the clip.
“I wasn’t surprised with all the stuff that happened before. But yeah, it was a very sad time to leave Souths unfortunately.”
#Josh #Mansour #dropped #South #Sydney #Rabbitohs #exit #Jason #Demetriou
