Souths’ ‘smoke and mirrors’ busted as real reason behind Burgess’ ugly divorce revealed

South Sydney’s reasons behind the immediate departure of former assistant coach Sam Burgess has been labelled “smoke and mirrors” with the final moments of the club great since revealed

“Make no mistake, there’s been a major fallout between Sam Burgess and Jason Demetriou. It’s been brewing in the background over the past couple of months,” Hooper said.

“What happened today was that all of South Sydney’s club management and also all of the players were called into an emergency meeting first thing this morning at 7am and by 8am, Sammy Burgess was out the door. They hadn’t been able to resolve their differences.

“Russell Crowe got on the phone at one point and ended up hanging up on Sam Burgess. They weren’t able to find middle ground so as a result, Sam departs the club.”

Both Burgess and John Morris were in the firing line on Wednesday morning, however according to The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis, only Morris wished to “fall into line” at Souths.

“John Morris remains at Souths until the end of this year before going to the Tigers. The question was put to them – can you two fall in line? Sam Burgess said no, John Morris said yes and he remains,” Carayannis said.

Souths have been a club under fire over the past few days. The play and effort of Latrell Mitchell have been called out after a horror performance against the Knights on Sunday.

The differing standards Demetriou has of Mitchell and Cody Walker compared to other players has caused friction in the side, especially with Burgess as Hooper explained.

“The way it’s been explained to me is that Sam went to Jason Demetriou and aired the issues that he had around the playing group and the standards and he aired those quite openly to Demetriou and the other coaches,” Hooper said.

“Since Latrell Mitchell has returned from injury, there are a couple of things that Sam has spotted at training and in games that he wanted to call out.”

Carayannis added: “I don’t think Sunday was the breaking point of the relationship. This has been bubbling on in the background for the last couple of months.

“I don’t think all the travel Souths have done has helped them, cause they’ve been living in each other’s pockets for the last few months and that exposes cracks, particularly when you are losing.”

Carayannis also referenced the player-led standards or lack thereof that has frustrated Burgess during the Bunnies form slump.

“Are the standards good enough, and that comes back to what Sam Burgess’ angst has been,” Carayannis said.

“Are there enough players buying into what should be happening at South Sydney and that’s what stems from all the frustrations that Sam has developed over the last couple of months.

“He doesn’t believe the senior players are doing enough to drive the standards to a level that is high enough to win a premiership.”