Talking about last year's drought-breaking premiership triumph is almost frowned upon at Redfern – as if it never happened.

Leading into Friday's grand final rematch against Canterbury, the players refused to reflect on their achievements, rattling out the same cliches the coach has been using to take the focus away from last year's achievements.

It's the same tactic they used in the previous years leading up to their grand final success, when any talk of a potential title victory was forbidden.

Halfback Adam Reynolds, who has since inked two Rabbitohs tattoos on his body, was left talking down the significance of restoring glory back to Redfern. "It's last year, mate," Reynolds said.

The in-form No.7 was saying things like, "you can't get caught in the past", "it's done now", "we can't dwell on that", "we just have to look forward", "we don't like to think backwards", and "the grand final is in the past now".

It was hardly the emotional response from a proud South Sydney junior who has since framed his grand final jersey and will carry the club's emblem on his body for the rest of his life after etching more ink onto his skin with some of his teammates in the off-season.

"I've got two Rabbitohs tattoos," Reynolds said. "I've got a little one on my wrist with 21 [number of Rabbitohs premierships] on it and another one on my foot. Johnny Sutton had it on his foot and I liked the idea of it. Just after the grand final a fair few of the boys got it done. A few beers in and we thought we'd go and get a tattoo."

So why, Adam? Why is it so important for you and the club to treat last year like it wasn't one of the most significant days in rugby league history?

"If you read the papers too much and start listening to everything, you tend to start believing it," he said. "We're not about to, so we'll focus on turning up for every game we play. It was good to enjoy it at the time but we can't keep celebrating it. It's something we need to move on from and the boys have."

At the start of pre-season Maguire addressed the team. He and a number of the senior players spoke about the importance of not dwelling in the past, and from that moment on the players made a pact not to publicly get caught up in the emotion and hysteria that followed their success last October.

"The whole squad just basically knew it," Reynolds said. "It was a new squad, new season. No one really cares about the premiers of last year. It's about how you turn up every game ready to play."

No doubt the Good Friday clash against the Bulldogs at the same ground where they dismantled them six months earlier will stir some memories.

Memories of how Sam Burgess played on through a broken cheekbone he suffered in the first tackle. Memories of Greg Inglis doing the "goanna" after scoring a try in the second half.

Not that they want to reflect on them. "It's all a bit of blur really," Reynolds said.

"The lead-up during the week was fantastic. To celebrate with the fans and experience it all with my family was a big thing for me. It's a good thing to look back on but I'm not really focused on that at the moment."