Taylor comfortable with Souths sackings
He's dumped four NRL players and stripped his co-captain of his title, but embattled South Sydney coach Jason Taylor says he can now finally sleep a bit easier.
A day after the latest incident in the winless Rabbitohs' season of woe, Taylor said he was more than comfortable with the decision to relieve David Kidwell of his duties while dropping Eddie Paea, Jaiman Lowe, Fetuli Talanoa and Ben Rogers for this weekend after all failed breath tests.
"I said to the players at the airport after the readings came through on Saturday morning that I can sleep a little bit easier tonight," Taylor, whose side is yet to register a win in seven rounds, told Sydney radio 2KY.
"I've been laying awake trying to work out what the problem is and how we get ourselves into the winners' circle, but it's clear this is the problem.
"At least I know now why we are losing, because we all said this is what we're going to do and five of us decided not to, and that's exactly what the deal is with our performances on the field."
Souths sanctioned the five players after they broke a team decree to register a zero breath-alcohol limit at their recovery session on Saturday.
Former Souths skipper Sean Garlick applauded Taylor and the club's hard stance, but said the players may have set themselves up for a fall by setting such a rule in the first place.
"Nobody can be critical of JT for implementing the rules, I suppose there was no choice, but maybe the mistake might have been made in setting that in the first place," Garlick told AAP.
"Maybe the players are saying what the officialdom wants to hear, but are they at the same time are setting themselves up for a fall.
"We'd all like to go through the season and not lose a game, not miss a tackle, but that's why they have rubbers on pencils, we all make mistakes.
"Sometimes we can get carried away with saying nowadays it's professional and these guys are getting paid a lot of money, they shouldn't be drinking.
"The game is the culmination of a very heavy and intense week and if ever there's a time when you can have a couple of beers, you would think it would be after a game.
"There's so much said about team bonding and getting to know each other on another level and sometimes a few beers is exactly what's needed to make people feel more comfortable and say what needs to be said.
"We all from time to time need a release."
Despite the club's winless start after a pre-season which promised so much, Taylor said he didn't feel his job was under any threat.
"At the moment, everybody at the club is under pressure, but no, I don't feel like (my job) is (under threat).
"If you want to say I'm under pressure right now it's only because we did such a great job last year to get in the top eight and now we've gone backwards."
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