Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold gave halfback Adam Reynolds some "direct feedback" after his underwhelming return from injury last weekend, advice that may help him keep hold of the South Sydney No.7 jersey for the remainder of the season.
The Rabbitohs scored their only two tries against the Dragons in the last 10 minutes after Adam Doueihi came on in a straight swap for Reynolds.
Seibold says an improvement from Reynolds will be required against the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night. There were signs of improvement on the training paddock on Wednesday.
"I'd like to see improvement in Rennos' [Adam Reynolds] game. I was really direct with some feedback I gave Renno early in the week," Seibold said.
"He's had a really positive week at training so I expect him to be much better in tomorrow night's game.
"He's the halfback in our team and he was a little bit underdone I suppose. He only played two games, missed the trials and hasn't trained a lot since the Christmas period so the challenge for Renno is to lead our team around the park particularly from an attacking point of view.
"Like all of our players, they've got a role to do. The expectation is that they know their role and they do their job. It's the same for any of the players in our team."
The Rabbitohs face their fiercest rivals at Allianz Stadium in the first leg of the 2018 Ron Coote Cup. Seibold is adamant his side will need to shutdown Roosters off-season recruits in James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk.
"There's been a lot of publicity about [James] Tedesco and [Cooper] Cronk to the Roosters so certainly we're really aware of that," Seibold said.
"I've coached Cooper quite a bit down in Melbourne with the Origin so I know his strengths and we need to try and limit those strengths.
"Tedesco, well he's a freakish player isn't he, so we need to make sure we are on guard for him. We need to be really honest with our kick-chase and there's a lot of opportunities where Tedesco pushes through the middle of the park as well.
"We've prepared for it, but preparing for it and stopping it on the night is certainly two different things. But we know they have a lot of strengths and they've got a lot of superstars."
Premiership-winning halfback Brett Kimmorley floated another option for the Rabbitohs on the NRL.com's NRL Teams show on Tuesday.
He said he would move Cody Walker to fullback, Alex Johnston to wing and pair Doueihi in the halves with Reynolds.
"I'd start him [Adam Doueihi]. I think he did a wonderful job when Adam Reynolds wasn't playing at the start of the season and they were not in the contest last week," Kimmorley said.
"Adam Reynolds goes off to the HIA, Adam Doueihi comes on and there's a spark in their attack. He challenges the line, he asks a lot of questions and has some excitement."
NRL Teams - Round 6