Hugh McGahan: Rabbitohs need focus for fairytale ending

Russell Crowe hugs Issac Luke after Friday's win. Photo / Getty Images

The Rabbitohs will be distracted by the events of grand final week and it could impact on the result next Sunday.

It won't help that it's their first grand final since 1971 - 43 years of hope and despair for the second-longest surviving club in Australian rugby league. The last three seasons have seen the club exit at the preliminary final stage, inflicting more pain on long-suffering fans.

I've said before that if Souths are to break the drought, they need to stop promoting their history during the latter stages of the season because it adds more pressure.

Their stars have been playing their lives out in the media and on the social pages, especially the Burgess family, giving the impression they were the club.

It's not helpful and needs to go if the team are to focus on what they are contracted to do.

It appears they have made some progress on focusing on what they want to achieve but that will come under pressure this week with all the distractions that come with playing in a grand final.

It's not until players experience the event-filled grand final week that they begin to understand the toll it can take. Given the club's history, this week has the potential to spiral out of their control.

There will be Souths icons rolled out, like John Sattler who captained the team in the 1970 grand final and played out the game even though he broke his jaw.

Names like Bob McCarthy and Ron Coote will also be showcased as 1971 winners and will themselves have a busy week at events.

The story around the club's exclusion from the NRL in 2000 and the fight they undertook for re-admission in 2002 will be rolled out.

No doubt the story about George Piggins, the former player, coach and administrator of the club who fell out with the current owners, will also feature. Piggins led the fight for the club's reinstatement but was dumped as chairman after achieving that. He has since become an ardent critic of the club.

There will also be a story around trying to get him to bury the hatchet and attend the final - he has not attended a game since his axing as chairman.

The departure of Sam Burgess to English rugby will be played out in grand proportions. There is a temptation for some to assume it will read like a Hollywood script, complete with fairytale finish.

And there will be no story without Russell Crowe being the headline act. There's a sense of it being South Sydney's week, with their opposition relegated to the role of mere extra in this story.

Distractions become critical when they are allowed to be. How events and stories are handled always determine one's destiny.

If the Rabbitohs aren't careful, they could become extras in their own tale. And it might not have a happy ending.