South Sydney‘s hopes of bouncing back in 2026 have hit an early stumbling block, with Latrell Mitchell and Wayne Bennett’s side handed arguably the toughest draw of all 17 NRL teams. The NRL officially unveiled the draw for 2026 on Friday, and many pundits are predicting the Rabbitohs to struggle.
Souths finished 14th in 2025 with just nine wins from 24 games. They suffered an unprecedented injury crisis, with superstar fullback Mitchell only playing 11 games. Skipper Cameron Murray played just one game after rupturing his Achilles in the pre-season, while Cody Walker and Campbell Graham also spent large chunks of the year on the sideline.
Latrell Mitchell and Souths have been handed one of the toughest NRL draws for 2026. Image: Getty
It led veteran journalist Phil Rothfield to claim: “Souths need an investigation into their injuries, they really do. Their sports science, their high-performance. A lot of them have happened at training.”
The Bunnies are confident they’ve turned a corner after some better results at the end of the season helped them avoid the wooden spoon. There’s hope that Mitchell will be able to stay on the field more by switching to centre, with the form of Jye Gray at fullback too good to ignore.
Bennett has also signed David Fifita from the Titans, and the former State of Origin player is set to be unleashed on a left edge that will also feature Mitchell and Walker. If the Bunnies can avoid the same injury curse that struck in 2025, they seemingly have the roster to make the top-eight in 2026.
Jye Gray is likely to get more time at fullback in 2026. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
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South Sydney handed one of toughest draws for 2026
But they copped some rotten news on Friday with the unveiling of the draw. Scott Bailey of AAP has ranked the Rabbitohs’ draw as the second-hardest behind only the Panthers, while Fox Sports believe Souths actually have it harder than Penrith.
Going off last year’s ladder, the Rabbitohs will have 12 games against top-eight opponents – seven of which are against top-four opponents. Only the Panthers have more, with 13 against top-eight opponents and eight against top-four.
Writing on Friday, Bailey said: “Tough draw, no doubt impacted by broadcasters wanting the Rabbitohs facing other big teams. A lot more to a draw than just going off the previous year’s ladder. But for what it’s worth, here’s the aggregate 2025 position of each team’s opponents for next year. The lower the number, the harder the draw.”
The aggregate ladder position for Penrith’s opponents is 194, while the Rabbitohs’ is 195. The Panthers would seemingly be better set-up to face top opponents, but time will tell whether Souths are.
Making matters worse, Bennett’s side don’t have any byes before State of Origin games in 2026. That means players like Mitchell and Murray will likely be missing when the Rabbitohs play those rounds. However they’ve been drawn to face the Panthers, Broncos and Cowboys in those games, and they will also be heavily affected.
The Rabbitohs have to play the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium twice in the first 11 rounds – in the opening game and again in Magic Round. They also have to play top-eight teams the Raiders, Bulldogs and Roosters twice.
Hardest draws for all 17 NRL teams (hardest to easiest):
with AAP