South Sydney coach Jason Taylor refused to administer last rites on his team's improbable finals push despite a momentum-halting 36-12 loss to Wests Tigers on Sunday.
The defeat, before 21,818 fans at ANZ Stadium, ended the Rabbitohs' five-match winning streak and left them five points shy of eighth spot with seven rounds remaining.
With 28 points considered the cut off for the finals, the Bunnies now need to win at least six more matches to make it.
"We were never talking about the top eight anyway," Taylor insisted.
"I didn't think we were going to win every game between now and the end - that would be nice - but I'm not going to start worrying about whether we can make it or not."
"We just got to keep taking it one week at a time because there's so many teams that are in that (top eight) area - there are so many teams playing each other - I don't know how it's going to end up."
"We certainly won't be giving up."
Souths started strongly enough against the Tigers, repelling an early onslaught to suggest they were up for the contest.
But trailing 12-6 at the break, the Rabbitohs fell apart badly in the second stanza, conceding five tries to all but kill off their season.
"If you don't turn up ready to go and ready to rip in for the 80 minutes - (or) unless you play a team that is down themselves - you're not going to win," Taylor pointed out.
"As the game wore on we looked like we weren't there in a few areas."
"We played against a really committed side but some silly things from us brought the Tigers into it and gave them confidence."
"From there they played really strong. We just couldn't seem to get it started."
"We had a game that we wanted to play well in against the Wests Tigers and we haven't done well enough so that's the disappointing part."
Tigers coach Tim Sheens praised his side's character, particularly during a 10-minute period in the first half when fullback Tim Moltzen was controversially sin binned for a professional foul.
Sheens labelled the decision 'ordinary' but was delighted his team overcame that obstacle to go on and win comfortably.