The door might just be back on the hinges by the time South Sydney players return from their bye in a fortnight following coach Michael Maguire's almighty spray on Friday night.
The week off couldn't have come at a better time for Rabbitohs players, if only to get themselves a few days away from their seething coaching staff following Friday night's 22-16 NRL loss to Parramatta.
Maguire ordered his players to have a good hard look at themselves. He was furious after they fumbled their way through the first half and to a 4-8 record to leave their season in tatters before their round 14 clash with Brisbane.
"It was unacceptable for what we expected," Maguire said.
"We need to have a good hard look at ourselves.
"Look in the mirror and see what we need to do, what we can for our teammates. We're a team that can knock out a reasonable performance five days ago and we end up tossing up that."
In the end, the scoreline flattered the Rabbitohs on Friday night.
They stumbled to just 40 per cent of possession in the first half to go to the break down 18-0, and only scored two tries in the last 10 minutes through winger Alex Johnson to make it look respectable.
If anything though, that just made Maguire more frustrated as he refused to blame the short turnaround from last week's Perth trip.
"The last five minutes or so we showed some good footy," Maguire said.
"So it's got nothing to do with what a lot of people keep asking me about with short turnarounds.
"Players play Origin and then turn around three days later and play. I think they're poor excuses.
"I don't wear that."
The Rabbitohs were their own worst enemies on Friday night at ANZ Stadium.
They missed 25 tackles and made 12 errors, while fullback Cody Walker let bombs bounce three times and fumbled another ball in the in-goal to gift the Eels a try.
But despite their 14th position on the ladder, Maguire insists the Rabbitohs' season isn't yet over.
"The No.1 thing is probably hanging onto the ball. We've got to fix it. The team has got to fix it. Because we'll end up in the exact same spot if we keep doing it. We need to make sure that we look after the ball and complete. It's been in the game since it started."
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