By Jonathan B Geddes

INNOVATIVE Southern Districts coach Scott Fava has worked on his team’s mental fitness as the team reboots in the wake of their big 80-17 loss to Eastwood last round.

“It was definitely the worst loss I have ever had from a playing and coaching point of view,” Fava told Rugby News.

The former Wallaby, who has built an impressive CV as player and coach, dusted himself off and jumped right into preparing for Saturday’s clash with Manly at Forshaw Rugby Park.

“There have been mental toughness drills we have been doing which we implemented over the past couple of weeks,” Fava revealed.

“It is a about the connection and how to get a group of men together that haven’t played with each other, come from all different backgrounds and try to work in the one direction.”

With their mental skills coach Ben Haime the players look at their standards and ask whether they are applying those standards during the week and understanding how that affects their performance on the weekend.

“And how we get better is by communicating with each other and bringing the other guys with us,” Fava said.

“It’s understanding the learnings that come from it (Eastwood loss) and take that into the next game to be better.”

NEW FACES, NEW TEAM 

FAVA has faced a massive challenge as Souths have come into this season with virtually a brand new team.

Over the first two weeks of the competition Fava has debuted 14 players in the Shute Shield – 11 against Easts in round one and another three in the Eastwood game.

Warhorse forward Jake Douglas, who missed last week’s game, has 167 first grade caps and the side which took the field against Eastwood had less than 50 top grade appearances between them.

In another incredible statistic, the team that played Eastwood had only four first and second graders from last year.

Out of that side prop Jack Cesare, lock Jonty Ravenhill and No.6 Mason Duke are still eligible for Colts.

“Give these guys 20-30 first grade games and sticking with the club, that’s where everything changes for us,” Fava said.    

REBEL WITH A CAUSE

WHILE everyone talks about developing rugby in Sydney’s west, the catchment area of Souths and Illawarra also deserves attention.

Not many kids in the Shire and down to Illawarra will fulfill their dreams of playing for the Dragons or Sharks in the NRL and there are great opportunities for them in rugby.

The big positive is that Fava is at the club for the long-haul and is invested in the future success of Souths.

This is the kind of challenge the former Wallaby backrower loves.

 “When I came on board I said to the guys ‘you’ve got to give me three years, I won’t take any less’,” he revealed.

“I need to make sure we are getting the right people in the door and we are building them up.

 “In the back of our minds we know it will take time – new coaching staff, new players, a new style of play,” Fava said.

“And that is a progressive thing, it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Fava has also seen the disconnect between the senior club to juniors for many years with his son playing.

“Part of my role too is to reconnect that and I’ve done a lot of work talking to the junior clubs and provide a pathway for these kids where they want to play for Southern Districts and wear the jersey,” Fava said.

In each of their Thursday sessions through March, Fava took his squad to the junior clubs and trained, ran a coaching clinic and had a barbecue.

“It was awesome,” he said.

GROUND ZERO.

SATURDAY is a big game for both Souths and Manly who have both lost their first two games.

The Marlins had a heartbreaking 41-38 loss to Norths at home and last week went down to the Two Blues 27-19.

“The expectation is that we just need to be better than last week,” Fava said. “I don’t think you can get any worse.

“We are feeding from our ground zero, that’s what we called it – and let that performance be the worst of our tenure.”