South Sydney’s season is threatening to implode after a week in the spotlight ended with a disastrous 48-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters that confirmed a winless opening three weeks.

Sam Walker left concussed after starring with a first-half double in the only major sour note for the Roosters, who controlled Friday night’s clash from the outset at Allianz Stadium.

A halfback switch, Latrell Mitchell’s profane radio interview and Josh Mansour’s critique of Jason Demetriou all combined for an unprecedented week of off-field scrutiny at the Rabbitohs.

But on the field it was the same old story as sloppy attack and lapses in concentration haunted Souths, who could finish the weekend in last place on the ladder for the first time since 2010.

Lachlan Ilias’s replacement Dean Hawkins could not spark the attack in the halves with Cody Walker, but he had little chance to shine as the Rabbitohs continuously came up with errors.

Siliva Havili, starting in place of the benched Damien Cook, threw a forward pass out of dummy half on the last tackle of the Rabbitohs’ first set in the red zone as a sign of things to come.

Sean Keppie, Jacob Host and Cody Walker each came up with their own errors at close range as the Rabbitohs fell 18-0 behind at the half.

Walker, James Tedesco and Dom Young had their fingerprints all over the early advantage.

Young nabbed the first try off a scrum play in the opening three minutes, before receiving a beautiful cut-out pass from Tedesco that led to Walker’s second.

Walker had earlier put two grubber kicks past the Rabbitohs’ defensive line to add his name to the scoresheet.

Club debutant Jack Wighton and Alex Johnston struggled for chemistry on the Rabbitohs’ left edge, with two of the Roosters’ three first-half tries coming when Johnston jammed in.

As they have in previous weeks, the Rabbitohs were able to piece things together in patches, looking their strongest just after Walker copped Wighton’s elbow in the head and had to leave the field.

But Sandon Smith, replacing concussed five-eighth Luke Keary, proved more than capable of steering the ship.

He stifled the Rabbitohs’ momentum by putting up a kick for utility Connor Watson, who scored in his first game since late 2022.

Mitchell received jeering from the Roosters’ home crowd with every touch of the ball and left to the sin bin in the final 15 minutes for impeding Tedesco on a kick chase.

Smith threw the ball that confirmed Joey Manu’s second-half double barely a minute later, before Tedesco burst over for two tries in six minutes to help the Roosters pile on the pain.

In his 300th NRL game, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves finished with 82 run metres from his 39 minutes.