The South Sydney Rabbitohs enter the 2026 NRL season with the goal of bouncing back from an underwhelming 2025, not helped by suffering key injuries almost all season long. At full strength, and with mastercoach Wayne Bennett at the helm for a second season, finals football will be a goal.
Season Preview
South Sydney has a wretched 2025 with injuries to key players and key positions, but their 14th placed finish was still a disappointment given they started their 2025 season with four wins from their first fives games. As the injuries piled up, the losses came. The Rabbitohs’ only points from round 12 to round 22 came from two byes.
The Rabbitohs will be counting on their skipper Cameron Murray seeing more game-time in 2026, in addition to recruiting David Fifita for power out wide. With Jai Arrow entering 2026 off the back of one of his better seasons, and Keaon Koloamatangi looking to sign off his Souths career before a 2027 move to the Dragons, their starting pack looks as good as ever.
The backline could be the weak link if Cody Walker has another bad year with injuries, and the move of Latrell Mitchell to centres backfires, or Jye Gray or Jamie Humphreys’ form drops off after stellar 2025 seasons for the Rabbitohs. Arguably Souths’ most consistent player last season, Jack Wighton was great in a challenging season, but he’s another year older.
There’s potential for things to go so right for South Sydney in 2025, but there’s the lingering doubt that the injury curse of 2025 doesn’t strike again with their slightly aging starting team.
Best Signing
One could argue that South Sydney’s best signing is for the 2027 season, after their sensational acquisition of Payne Haas for three seasons, but in the short term their 2026 biggest signing will also hopefully be their best.
David Fifita
Few doubt David Fifita’s impact on a game of rugby league at his best, but few would also argue that he wasn’t at his best last season on the Gold Coast: a combination of injuries and appearing to have fallen out of favour. Perhaps this will be another case of Bennett getting more out of a player than any other coach can. If he can unlock that Fifita magic then South Sydney will have an additional weapon in a strong forward pack at full strength.
But can Bennett turn around Fifita? Was his drop-off a Titans problem or a Fifita problem? He averaged 2.8 tackle breaks per game in 2025, almost half of his average 5.5 from the previous three seasons. His run metres total per game was down 50 metres in 2025 and post-contact metres down 10 metres per game. He only played seven games, so the first task for the Rabbitohs is getting more game-time, which will hopefully lead to better stats and more value for the Rabbitohs. It is a risk for both potential injuries and a lack of impact, but Souths looked so low on attack at times last season it’s worth the risk.
Adam Elliott
Given the age of some of South Sydney’s key players, they probably didn’t need another 30+ year old player. But Adam Elliott is a tireless worker and very reliable, and just the kind of signing to balance out the excesses of Fifita.
Key Player
Latrell Mitchell
Latrell Mitchell looks like he is going to start the season in the centres, a move which seems to partially to allow Jye Gray to continue his magic at fullback, and to get Mitchell even more involved in games. Some of his best games in his career have been at centre, if not for the Rabbitohs so far.
At South Sydney’s best before 2025, their left-hand attack was deadly, with so many tries following a combination of Reynolds-Walker-Mitchell-Johnston, and with Latrell full-time in the centres instead of periodically chiming in from fullback, they can own that side of the field again.
Getting game time is an issue for Mitchell the past two seasons, playing 11 games in 2024 and 2025, so that is a concern for the move to the centres where there will extra duties in defence as the potential downside.
Souths have a lot of big game breakers in their squad ahead of the new season, and getting the most out of them will be key, so lucky they have one rugby league’s best mentors at the helm.
Player to Watch
Jye Gray
After a breakout 2025 season filling in for Mitchell at fullback, it appears that Gray has been given the keys to the fullback role to start the 2026 season, so coach Bennett has shown a lot of faith in the youngster who was one of the brightest stars for Souths in 2025. Gray proved very resilient for his size, but one does wonder if opposition teams may tweak their tactics against him as he plays a full season. Whilst not technically his second season, there is the concern of second season syndrome for the Souths fullback.
Brandon Smith
At the other end of their career is Brandon Smith, who appears determined to change his reputation from being a little bit of a class clown in previous seasons to rediscovering some of the form that made him so valuable to the Melbourne Storm for so long. He is another project for Bennett to get right in 2026, and if the Supercoach can get all the players with huge potential to fire all at once, then it could be an exciting season for the Redfern side.
Draw Analysis
While the Rabbitohs get a bye in round 4, they also only get two games at their regular home ground in the first nine rounds and have trips to Brisbane (Dolphins R1) and Perth (Canberra R6) and their customary loss in Melbourne in round 8. By that match in Melbourne the Rabbitohs will have played three of last season’s top four, their arch-rivals the Roosters (who are among the favourites for the 2026 crown), and the Dolphins (who are widely tipped to make finals this season). So it is not an easy start to their 2026 season.
After their third bye of the season in round 16, the Rabbitohs only have to leave Sydney twice in 11 games, once to Canberra and the other to the Gold Coast to a ground they have won 11 games in a row at and last lost in 2009.
So if South Sydney gets off to a good start by round 8, and potentially break their Melbourne hoodoo, their draw in the second half of the season has them well placed to build momentum all the way to the finals.
Big Questions
- Will moving Mitchell into the centres be a long-term change, and will it unlock some big performances for Latrell in Rabbitohs colours.
- How do the Rabbitohs manage their older, key players in 2026, especially Walker in the halves, a position where South Sydney had a long of change in last season. Also in the context of shaping a roster after a big spend on Haas.
- When will Alex Johnston break the all-time try scoring record? Will the Rabbitohs fans still run onto the field to celebrate or should they listen to authorities?
Predicted Finish
Miss top 8.
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Related Items
- 🔁 2025 Season Review: https://rugbyleaguezone.com/south-sydney-rabbitohs-2025-season-review-and-statistical-breakdown/
- 📅 2026 Draw & Fixtures: https://rugbyleaguezone.com/south-sydney-rabbitohs-2026-nrl-fixtures-squad-list-and-player-signings/
