Southern Districts’ prodigal son Joe Barakat is back in charge at Forshaw more than two decades after last coaching at the Shute Shield club. 

Barakat’s short lived retirement came to an end when he was asked to help rebuild the Rebels after a tough few years for Sydney’s most southern side. 

“Initially I put my hand up to help out in a few specific areas down at Souths but I’ve ended up in charge for next year,” Barakat told Rugby News. 

“It’s obviously my club, I haven’t coached here since 2000 but I’ve always kept a close eye on the place and things haven’t been great there for the past few years so I want to be a part of the rebuild. 

“When I looked at Souths last year, they ranked last at lineout time and third last in scrums which is so unusual for a Southern Districts’ side.  

“Defensively, they were letting in five tries a game and only scoring two. 

“Set piece and defence are both areas I’ve spent a bit of time on so it’s an exciting challenge. It wasn’t exactly a role I was looking for or chasing, but I’m here now and ready to give it a good crack.”

After several seasons towards the bottom of the Shute Shield ladder, Barakat’s first move was to tear up the club’s player payment system, which he believes has added to the Rebels woes on and off the field in recent years. 

“It was an important first step. Over the past few years, too many players were getting paid just to turn up and that attracted the wrong type of players at times,” the coach said. 

“There was no incentive to win, or to get results, so we’ve restructured that and we’ve lost a few players, but I’m confident now that the players that are still here, want to be here for the right reasons.  

“No one plays in the Shute Shield to get rich, but when there are payments involved, they need to be structured in the right way to get the best out of people and I think we’ve taken a step towards that.”

Following that, the veteran coach planned a preseason focussed solely on fitness and defence, a tactic he’s used successfully before during coaching stints in Australia, Japan and the UK over the past three decades. 

“I’m not bringing out a football prior to Christmas. We need to sort our strength and conditioning and our defence before we worry about anything else,” he explained. 

“When I was coaching West Harbour in 2022, we beat Randwick at Coogee in one of the last games of the season and we were towards the bottom of the ladder. A year later, Hoilsy turned Randwick into a premiership team by focussing their entire game around their defence. 

“He made sure his team could defend for 80 minutes without the ball, just like University teams did in the past when they won competitions. 

“I’ve told our new S&C coach that we need to build a playing group that can win games through defence. 

“These days everyone attacks in a fairly similar way, but not everyone has the same attitude in defence and I hope that can be our point of difference moving forward. 

“We’re putting in a lot of hard work at the moment and the boys aren’t liking me much, which is exactly as it should be at this time of the year.”

Barakat said a lack of depth across the grades has hurt Souths in recent years and admitted a complete rebuild might take a bit of time. 

While the club has put a renewed focus on their colts program and on building stronger relationships with the junior feeder clubs in the St George and Sutherland Shire catchment areas, the coach acknowledged that won’t change things overnight. 

“It’s going to be an interesting ride but our focus is to win more games than we lose. I can’t stand here and say we’re going to play finals footy next year, but obviously you always want to. 

“Over the last few years, the club has been way too reliant on mercenaries who leave for the next pay cheque when the money runs out. It’s torn through the depth of the club and the culture at the club and that’s going to take some time to rebuild. 

“But there are still a lot of good people around the place and my focus is to work with them to make Southern Districts, Southern Districts again. 

“I want people hating the fact that they have to come over Tom Ugly’s Bridge and play at Forshaw. We’ve had Fortress written all over the place but it’s been anything but for the past few years. 

“That’s the mentality we’ve got to change. We’ve got to be tough and abrasive in everything we do and make people hate coming here again. 

“And I reckon we’ve still got enough good people here to do that.”