Question marks over the timing of the sacking of Jason Demetriou, the signing of Super League halfback Lewis Dodd from next season and the mutual interest between South Sydney and legendary coach Wayne Bennett have been raised, with one NRL great labelling it as “bizarre”.
After weeks of speculation, Souths gave under fire coach Jason Demetriou his marching orders on Tuesday night. Almost immediately, Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett and Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly both expressed a mutual desire to link back up from next season.
Another factor to note is South Sydney’s likely signing of St Helens halfback Lewis Dodd from 2025, which was reported earlier this week, a few days before Demetriou was fired.
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The NRL360 panel discussed Bennett’s interest in the Souths job and the impending signing of Dodd, with host Braith Anasta tossing up the possibility that Bennett could have been involved in South Sydney’s recent decision making.
“Do we think Wayne has had something to do with this decision (sacking of Demetriou)?” Anasta said.
“I know that Blake said he hasn’t spoken to Wayne in the last couple of days. I could be way off the mark here but I find it very bizarre to go and sign a key halfback and to make a big call like that, without having a coach signed.”
“Every team has a recruitment and retention committee but fundamentally those calls come to the coach. He has the final say,” James Graham interjected.
“And with a position like this which would be disruptive to the current squad, baring in mind who they have on their current roster like Lachlan Ilias, like Latrell Mitchell, like Cody Walker, like Damien Cook, this is going to make a difference.
“If a coach comes in and doesn’t like the halfback that they just signed, there’s you’re an excuse.”
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Anasta then noted what Solly had said on Dodd and whoever the new coach may be during NRL360’s interview with the Souths CEO.
“We’ve always had a system here where the head coach has great influence over who we recruit and retain, but doesn’t have the final say. So if there’s a head coach who doesn’t want to work with Lewis, if we do sign him, they probably shouldn’t be the head coach,” Solly said in his interview earlier in the program.
Anasta added: “That points me in the direction of that they know who the coach is, and he’s happy with Dodd, which is fair enough, but it seems reading between the lines that the decision of Dodd was a curveball, but maybe it wasn’t.
“There is a strong tip going around that Wayne was absolutely was consulted about the signature of Lewis Dodd. They’re saying they haven’t technically signed him yet but we’ve been around long enough to say that’s BS … He’s going to South Sydney next year,” Fox League’s James Hooper added.
Dodd, who has won a premiership and World Club Challenge with St. Helens, is expected to arrive at the Bunnies next year and wear the No. 7 jersey.
The promising half will likely be an upgrade over current starter Dean Hawkins and the injured Lachlan Ilias.
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“I think it’d be remarkable to spend all that money on a halfback. We’re not talking about 26, 27, 28 on the roster, we’re talking about the main man,” The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Caraynnis said.
“You could’ve waited. If you wanted to sort the coach out, you could have said to Lewis ‘yes we’re interested. Wait two weeks and we’ll see where the coach is and see if the new coach signs off on it’.
“I think it’s remarkable.”
Graham added that no player of Dodd’s ilk and potential would move halfway across the world to a new club without certainty on who his coach will be at his new club.
“Also, if I’m Lewis Dodd, I’m thinking, who’s my coach. And you know what I’m not accepting, is ‘I’ don’t know’,” Graham said.
“His player manager wouldn’t accept it either. He would not even enter negotiations either. He’d need certainty on who it was going to be.”
Source Agencies
