Rabbitohs young gun Lachlan Ilias has been backed by teammate Damien Cook and NRL legend Greg Inglis to deliver for the South Sydney club this season.
The 21-year-old will take over the departed Adam Reynolds spot in the halves, pairing the experienced and dangerous Cody Walker.
While many pundits have said there is a lot of pressure on Ilias to fill the shoes of Reynolds, Cook will be doing what he can to nurture his talent and give him the confidence to deliver from hooker.
“Where I can help Lachy (Ilias) out is just keeping him calm and helping him to guide the team around, but I have full confidence that he can get the job done,” Cook said on the Big Sports Breakfast.
“He has got a pretty simple role to do at the moment, do his job and once he builds that confidence in first grade we are going to see his natural talent come out.”
Despite having only one first grade game under his belt, the NSW Origin hooker was excited about his new spine member this season.
“He is pretty confident in his ability and we saw that last year, chucked into a team with not a lot of footy over the last couple of years and played against the Dragons and did a great job.
“So I have no doubts he is going to do a good job for us and only get better as the year goes on.”
Former Rabbitohs and NRL legend Greg Inglis knows what it’s is like to have hype surrounding him coming into a new season.
The outside back was unplayable on his day and consistently destructive for the Storm, Rabbitohs and Queensland.
Inglis learnt how to block out all the noise and believes Ilias needs to do the same.
“I think he just needs to block out all the noise of people trying to say he has got big shoes to fill, Adam Reynolds this, Adam Reynolds that, Lachlan Ilias is his own player,” Greg Inglis said to Foxsports.com.au.
“I know Jason would have done things around him to make him feel comfortable, the boys would have made him feel comfortable too throughout the trials.
“But I think he just needs to block out all the talk about Adan Reynolds leaving and how he has big shoes to fill.”
Source: foxsports.com.au