time in a few years, finishing fifth, but were promptly knocked out of the finals series by St George 16–5. Ron Willey became coach in 1984, and the next year Souths made the semis. Souths came from 0-14 behind to beat Manly 22–18 in a memorable first semi-final but were knocked out the following week by St. George, but their best two years were 1986 and 1989 under the leadership of Mario Fenech. The Rabbitohs just missed out on the minor premiership in 1986 and then were bundled out after losing both semi-finals to Canterbury and Balmain respectively. Souths led from basically start to finish in 1989, remarkably not losing a single match away from the Sydney Football Stadium. Souths finished the regular season on 37 points with 18 wins and a draw, losing only three games along the way. However, come finals time, they lost a classic semi-final to Balmain and Canberra a week later powered home to end Souths best chance of getting back to the glory years. Apart from hooker and captain Fenech, Souths' stars during this period included forwards Les and Ian Roberts, halfback Craig Coleman and mercurial five-eighth Phil Blake. The troubled 1990s and exclusion More troubles hit Souths in the 1990s where they went from minor premiers in 1989 to wooden spooners in 1990. Led by George Piggins, Souths survived in the competition but much of the time were at the bottom of the ladder. They did however take out the pre-season competition in 1994, defeating two-time premiers Brisbane 27–26 in the final. In 1996 Souths were thrashed 62-0 by arch-rivals Sydney Roosters on ANZAC Day. That year Souths would play their last ever first-grade match at Redfern, beating the South Queensland Crushers 48–16. Lack of funds saw Souths unable to keep their top players (including captain Mario Fenech, Les Davidson, Mark Carroll and Craig Field) and a lot of talented young juniors were lost and went on to represent Australia from other clubs (these included Jim Dymock, Ian Roberts, Jim Serdaris, Terry Hill and later Craig Wing and Braith Anasta when the club was excluded from the competition). The Super League war was triggered by a vision to cut Sydney sides, with Souths in the firing line. Souths remained in the ARL during the 1997 season, and then played in the National Rugby League, the merger of the Super League and ARL, from