South Sydney coach Jason Taylor says he's told his players to ignore the off-field dramas surrounding the club's long-term future and the relationship between its co-owners Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court.

The Rabbitohs were in the headlines again this week when executive chairman Holmes a Court admitted he could not guarantee the survival of the foundation club, compounding speculation he and Hollywood star Crowe had fallen out.

Last Monday, Souths slumped miserably to their eighth defeat from nine starts in Canberra, but on Saturday night they stuck with premiers Melbourne in Gosford to only go down 15-10.

"I told the boys that we've got one job and that's to worry about playing well and performing better than we did last week," Taylor said.

"I said to the boys that, regardless of what's being written, I know personally for a fact that Peter and Russell are a hundred per cent behind the club, that we've just got to let them sort out the administration side of things.

"We get paid to play footy and that's what we've got to do. Let's concentrate hard on that and I think it was clear with the performance (against Melbourne) that that's what we're all doing."

Holmes a Court and Crowe sold themselves to Souths members as the club's best chance of securing a long-term future when they took the reins in 2006, but NRL boss David Gallop's concerns about the number of clubs scrapping for dollars in Sydney led to the admission that a boost in memberships was needed to ensure survival.

The millionaire businessman's decision to step down as executive chairman, tipped to be as early as this week, only added to speculation his relationship with Crowe had deteriorated.

Taylor would not be drawn on Holmes a Court's exit.

"I'm here to coach the footy team, that's all I'm going to be doing, that's all I'll be concentrating on so I don't really have any comments on all of that stuff," he said.

Rabbitohs captain Roy Asotasi said the players had been largely oblivious to the off-field crisis.

"None of the boys have been reading the papers," he said

"When JT (Taylor) came to us at one of the training sessions and told us about it, the boys were just what the hell are you talking about? "It's all sweet.

Meanwhile, Taylor said he was looking to the future by experimenting with regular hooker Isaac Luke at halfback.

"I know he's not extremely comfortable there but I know that in the long run it's going to make him a better dummy-half spending some time at first receiver," Taylor said.

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