They were the three inches that denied South Sydney a shot at NRL glory.
Coach Anthony Seibold fell one game short of leading the Rabbitohs to this year’s grand final in his first year in charge after being edged by rivals the Sydney Roosters in a tense 12-4 defeat on Saturday night.
It brings to an end an impressive Rabbitohs campaign under their new coach, where they established themselves in the top four for the entire second half of the season.
In making 16 errors, they dropped the ball with the decider begging.
“We probably weren’t the best version of ourselves tonight, that’s what makes it disappointing,” Seibold said.
“Plenty of effort, a little bit off with our execution, our attention to detail in attack. (But) the Roosters deserved to win.”
Seibold went on to claim that, in a game of inches, three of them went the Roosters’ way.
He pointed to Roosters winger Blake Ferguson almost stepping out, and centre Paul Momorovski being the beneficiary of a dubious tapback, for two crucial second-half tries.
Those decisions were on the back of a close forward pass call that denied Rabbitohs winger Robert Jennings a first-half four-pointer that could’ve changed the course of the game.
“There’s three really big plays where, when you talk about inches in the game, represent (just) that,” Seibold said.
The rookie mentor also defended his team’s inability to take advantage of a lame Cooper Cronk, who carried a busted shoulder for the second half.
The Rabbitohs targeted the Roosters veteran a handful of times, but failed to crack a defence that has ranked first in the league for the entire season.
“We didn’t necessarily look to chase him. We wanted to put him under pressure when he kicked the footy, (but) that didn’t have any impact on the game,” he said.
“I don’t understand – he was still making his tackles.
“Where we needed to be better was our attention to detail in attack. We didn’t get to the right areas of the field that we want to run our shapes from.”
The Rabbitohs will now turn their attention to extending Seibold’s contract amidst speculation Brisbane are keen to lure him north once his deal expires at the end of next season.
It is believed the Rabbitohs had offered Seibold a new deal earlier this year, however the former Melbourne assistant shelved talks until the post-season.
The Rabbitohs’ preliminary final finish is their best since their drought-breaking triumph in 2014, but will now lose club favourite Jason Clark and star forward Angus Crichton over the summer.