Cody Walker says he didn’t know who to trust;didn’t know who or what,for that matter,to believe.

“I still don’t know what to believe,” the five-eighth says from the comfort of South Sydney’s hotel lobby in San Diego ahead of next weekend’s historic double-header in Las Vegas.

Walker and Latrell Mitchell were at the centre of an abrupt and ugly break-up that resulted in club legend Sam Burgess walking out on his beloved Bunnies just a week out from a season-defining clash against arch-rivals the Sydney Roosters over the coaching methodology of Jason Demetriou.

In particular,the coach’s ability,or inability,to get the best out of his two most high-profile players.

Walker is relaxed,almost laying down on the lounge in the swanky Hyatt Regency in the coastal town of La Jolla as he reflects on a tumultuous period in his career that left him reconsidering his future at the club.

“You ready to go,bra,” Mitchell yells out from across the lobby in an attempt to rescue Walker some 15 minutes into the interview. For the record,Walker had nowhere to go;it was just Mitchell giving Walker the “out” that most NRL players look for when they’re sitting down to speak to the media.

“It just blows my mind how mentally tough he is,” Walker says as Mitchell walks away to get a coffee.

“How strong-willed he is. How strong-minded he is at such a young age. He’s 27 now,and I was just two years into my NRL career at that age. I could never handle the level of scrutiny he’s under. I would have had enough by now with the amount of scrutiny he has on him in society,let alone within footy.”

It’s nine days out from South Sydney’s first game of the NRL season. Walker is still not guaranteed to play as he nurses a calf injury that has restricted him to light duties since touching down in the United States on Monday.

Special treatment,perhaps?

“I’m still unsure what that actually meant,” Walker says in reference to the private accusations Burgess levelled against him and Mitchell that were published in theHerald last August.

“I personally spoke to ‘JD’[coach Jason Demetriou] about it straight away. I said,‘Does this happen? Do you feel like that?’ I said,‘I wouldn’t want to be at a club if that ever happens’.”

The inference was that Walker wielded too much power at South Sydney. That,basically,he ran the club and could get away with things such as walking out on training sessions if he didn’t like what he saw.

“There are times on the training park where I do get the shits,” Walker admits. “But I don’t walk off training. I never walk off training.

“There are times I get the shits at training and say what needs to be said. If someone’s not doing their job,I have the right to tell people,right? It’s my job as the senior playmaker in the side. To say I walk off training and do all that sort of stuff,I’ve never really done that.

“It’s just crazy to think someone can do that. Everyone knows that I’m vocal and animated. That’s me wanting to win. I hate losing. I can’t stand losing. I’m one of those guys that if someone is not doing their job in the team,I tell them.”

The ordeal hurt Mitchell the most. He retreated from the spotlight and those close to him feared his days in the NRL might have been numbered.

His advisor Matt Rose contacted NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo to complain about “personal attacks” on the South Sydney star and raise concerns about his welfare.

Rose phoned Abdo to seek the NRL’s assistance in protecting his close friend after thepublication of a leaked text message from the son of Souths legend Clive Churchill calling Mitchell an “imposter” and a “cancer” at the club.

“It’s fair game when someone has an opinion on people playing football,but it’s the personal attacks by certain individuals that needs to be called out and removed from the game,” Rose told theHerald.

“It happens too regularly. When we’re talking about the issues that people face on mental health and we advocate on how important they are,then in the same breath we throw all these kids under the bus if they don’t get something right or live up to someone’s standards. It’s unfair.”

The comments,which were sent in a text message to Rabbitohs chairman Nick Pappas,cost Rodney Churchill the honour of presenting the grand final man of the match award named in honour of his father,Clive.

It did little to comfort Mitchell,who spent the summer soul-searching following a turbulent end to a season in which he was restricted to just 16 games due to a lingering calf issue.

He refused to broach the topic when asked about it in San Diego on Friday.

“We’ll just leave that there,mate. We don’t dwell on the past,” Mitchell says in response to questions about last year.

“We put the team first and put each other first and that’s all that matters. I’m around good people,loving life. My mates are good. They just want me to turn up and be me,and they allow me to be. I get to do that,and I’m very grateful for them.

“You got to move on,otherwise you dwell on stuff that happens in the media and what not. It just consumes you. Your outlet doesn’t seem to work. Your values don’t seem to work. You don’t know if you’re living any more. For me,it was about going back to my roots,knowing what I’ve got at home and going from there.”

An official South Sydney press release said that Burgess – one of the most passionate men to wear the cardinal and myrtle – had left with the team on the brink of finals extinction to prepare for the birth of his child with partner Lucy Graham and his upcoming job as the head coach of Super League club Warrington next year. It was nothing but a cover.

Burgess walked,with the guarantee of the $700,000 he was still owed by the club the following year as part of his injury retirement payment,because he felt he was being pushed.

And he was being pushed because the coach no longer trusted him. After all,Demetriou only agreed to his appointment as one of his assistant coaches because it came as a request from co-owner and Burgess’ close friend and Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe.

“The sense of entitlement or people being given special treatment or allowed to get away with things,it was never accurate in my mind,” Demetriou says.

“I can’t control the agendas at play or the information that gets put out there for whatever reason. It wasn’t being said in round 11 and 12[before the Rabbitohs won only four of their final 13 games to miss the finals]. Results create an opportunity for fingers to be pointed – whether that’s internal or external. The best thing to do when things don’t go your way is to stick together. That probably didn’t happen – that’s the most disappointing part.

“Because the conversations that we had in-house,I would have preferred they stayed in-house. I don’t know what was being said exactly. I don’t know who was saying it to who. All I know is that it was out there and once it’s out there you have to deal with it.”

At an emergency 6.30am board meeting at the club’s Heffron Park offices on August 23,it was dealt with. A two-hour meeting,attended by the coach,chief executive Blake Solly,chairman Pappas,select board members and Crowe chiming in down the line,led to Burgess’ teary exit through a media scrum waiting outside.

“To be honest,he’s always been a bit dramatic Sam,so I’m used to him leaving on a whim,” his brother Tom,now entering his final season at the club,says tongue-in-cheek upon reflection of his sibling’s abrupt departure.

“Look,he’s a legend of the club at Souths and everyone respects him here,but the way the club went about everything was in the best interest of the club. That’s all anyone here is ever thinking about,what’s in the best interest for the club and where it’s heading.

“At the end of the day,Sam was part of the coaching staff. That was his thing to have with different players. It’s a different dynamic. You take off the brother cap when you’re in the camp and you put your players cap. JD is the head coach. He’s at the helm. We all have to respect that.”

Burgess told those close to him that his issue wasn’t with Mitchell and Walker. It was with the environment that had been allowed to develop that he believed created a false perception of what is required to win premierships – something he knew a bit about.

It was born under Wayne Bennett,inside a football club desperate to provide Mitchell with an environment to keep him in love with the sport after an unhappy exit from the Sydney Roosters in 2019.

Demetriou,in Bennett’s absence,tried to replicate it,but what was once interpreted as shrewd management when the team was winning was suddenly being criticised by some as poor leadership as they plummeted out of premiership favouritism into finals oblivion.

“An accusation from Sam about special treatment,given the support we always showed Sam,felt slightly strange,” Solly tells theHerald.

“I think that the club has been extremely good over a long period of time to Sam. We’ve supported Sam through more challenges in his playing career and personal life than anyone who has been associated with our club. He should know better than anyone the support we provide our players and staff,and how difficult it is when people internally are criticising them publicly.

“The issue was with how it all came out. I don’t necessarily agree with the issues that were raised,but we try and foster an environment where if people have a considered opinion they should feel comfortable to raise it and deal with it. But for it to get out beyond our four walls was unfair on all the players involved … it was unacceptable.”

The saga surrounding Burgess extinguished what was left of the flame that was still burning at South Sydney in 2023.

The Rabbitohs,minus the suspended Mitchell,lost to the Roosters a week later and were sent marching towards Mad Monday four weeks earlier than many anticipated when they sat atop the ladder around the halfway mark of the season.

“Not playing finals footy,not playing to our potential … that was hard,” Walker says.

“Everybody who watches footy knows South Sydney has a good squad. We have a very good squad. To not play finals footy,it was f---ed . I was watching the finals series and every game I was just shaking my head,shaking my head,shaking my head;knowing that on our day we can beat anyone. We can beat anyone in the comp. That’s what we believe.

“That’s what f---ing hurt the most. The thing that I took from going through that is I need to get back to training. I need to get back to footy. I just wanted to play. It was doing my head in.”

Walker still hasn’t spoken to Burgess. Not through a lack of trying,though.

The veteran playmaker admits he bears no grudge towards the Englishman,but wants the opportunity to sit in front of him and understand why he didn’t ever raise the issue with him.

“I actually tried to reach out to him before he went to England … the logistics of it couldn’t work out,” Walker says.

“I don’t hold any hard feelings towards Sam. I still love the player that he was and still have wonderful respect for the man. I’d just like to sit down and have a yarn with him and hash out anything that needs to be hashed out and move on from it.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and everyone is entitled to say what’s on their mind. I’d just love to sit down with him and see what he was thinking.”

It remains unclear,even to those involved,what motivated a sequence of events that prohibited the coach and his troops in their quest to change the fortunes of a football team that was far too often close enough but not good enough.

Was it just a case of loose lips? Or was it the result of a meticulous and deliberate plot to undermine the coach?

“I’ll leave that for other people to decide,” Demetriou says.

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