SOUTH Sydney coach Michael Maguire admits it was a mistake to take his players to Russell Crowe’s farm for a pre-season bonding trip.

Crowe and playmaker Luke Keary were involved in an infamous bust-up at the Hollywood star’s Nana Glen property at the start of this year.

Keary ended up ordering a taxi at 2.30am after being told to leave following a verbal altercation between him and Crowe, in which the latter told the Rabbitohs half, “you didn’t earn your money last season.”

By the time the story broke in several media outlets, the pair insisted they had patched up their differences, while Souths officials claimed the incident was a minor blip on the radar on what was otherwise a successful weekend.

Round 20

However, speaking on Sterlo On The Couch on Wednesday, Maguire said the decision to host his players at Crowe’s property was, in a hindsight, not the right one.

“You’d see it as a mistake with obviously the outcomes. I won’t beat around that,” Maguire said, in reference to the Keary-Crowe incident which was reportedly fuelled by alcohol.

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Souths playmaker Luke Keary is now heading to the Roosters. Picture: Mark Evans. Source: News Corp Australia

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“But the camaraderie around the team was very strong (and) it’s just unfortunate that we had to walk away from that with something we had to deal with.

“The character of the team has definitely grown from going through these things we’ve had to face.”

Keary’s future at the Rabbitohs was always going to be under a cloud following his bust-up with club owner Crowe, and indeed the 24-year-old eventually signed a deal with arch-rivals the Roosters in June.

Despite guiding Souths to a premiership in 2014, Keary has spent a large chunk of this season coming off the bench, with Maguire trialling a number of players at five-eighth alongside regular halfback Adam Reynolds.

Maguire admitted the Keary issue was one of a number of off-field problems he’s had to deal with during a difficult year for the Rabbitohs, in which Paul Carter and Kirisome Auva’a have been sacked for ill-discipline and young forward Chris Grevsmuhl walked out on the club.

The Bunnies are currently sitting 13th on the ladder and have lost six straight to leave them with only a slim mathematical chance of making the finals.

Russell Crowe tried to take the blame after the story became public. Picture: Mark Evans. Source: News Corp Australia

“We’ve had to deal with a lot of different issues right throughout this season,” Maguire said.

“It’s going to be a real building block moving forward.”

“The leadership group of Greg (Inglis), Sam (Burgess), John Sutton and Adam Reynolds haven’t faced this for some time.

“They’ve had to really roll the sleeves up and build from everything that we’ve got within the club.”

Maguire also defended the club’s retention and recruitment strategies, with criticism coming over their decision to bring Burgess back to the club on a deal believed to be worth up to $1.5 million a year.

The likes of Chris McQueen and Dylan Walker were let go to make romm in the salary cap for Burgess, while an embarrassing bungle in Cody Walker’s recent re-signing ended up costing the club over $300,000 more than it should have to retain the rising playmaker.

But despite their run of poor form, Maguire backed the signing of Burgess on his big-money deal.

“I think we made certain decisions, and the right decisions,” Maguire said.

“Obviously Sam is a great leader and he’s really grown, especially through this period.

“I think we definitely made the right decision.

“Unfortunately when you’re making decisions to bring someone like him into your team you need to make some calls.

“It’s great to see those boys go on and do well, but moving forward for our club he’s definitely a great leader.”

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