South Sydney are preparing to offer Wayne Bennett a three-year deal as early as next week as the veteran coach weighs up a return to the Rabbitohs.
It comes as Parramatta held a scheduled board meeting on Wednesday night at which it was decided not to follow up on approaches from third parties allegedly acting on behalf of Bennett.
Sources with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, told the Herald the Eels had been made aware that Bennett had interest in exploring the possibility of joining Parramatta if they moved on from coach Brad Arthur.
The Eels, however, won’t rush into a decision on Arthur’s future despite the Rabbitohs pushing hard for Bennett’s services after terminating the contract of Jason Demetriou on Tuesday.
Parramatta powerbrokers are conscious of the injury predicament that has hampered Arthur’s ability to get the best out of his football team, with Mitchell Moses’ long-term foot injury this week compounded by a knee injury to skipper Clint Gutherson. Eels chairman Sean McElduff declined to comment.
The Eels board want to give Arthur more time to prove he can dig the club out of the hole it currently finds itself in and won’t be pressured into a decision by South Sydney’s urgency to appoint a new coach.
The Rabbitohs are having internal discussions about Bennett’s return to the club and are willing to give him the three-year deal he has indicated he desires.
Sources told the Herald that the Rabbitohs board and owners have endorsed the pursuit of Bennett.
In his previous stint at South Sydney, former head of football Shane Richardson secured Bennett’s services knowing his assistant Jason Demetriou would take over after three seasons. The club made two preliminary finals and one grand final in those three seasons before he left the club.
Sources with knowledge of the situation said Bennett does not want to be restricted, as has been the case in his last two deals with South Sydney and the Dolphins, and wants a minimum three-year deal. The Rabbitohs are open to such a deal.
South Sydney have also shut down any chance of luring Bennett back to the club immediately in a bid to keep their faint finals hopes alive.
Bennett is the short-priced favourite to return for a second stint at Souths, with the club hopeful they can broker a deal in the next fortnight.
The Dolphins already have Bennett’s successor, Kristian Woolf, at the club, while an early exit for Bennett would allow him to start rebuilding the roster.
But Souths do not have the money in their $5.5m football department cap to accommodate Bennett this year – they just paid out $375,000 to Jason Demetriou – and are mindful not to undo all the hard work the Dolphins have done in establishing themselves in the top grade.
“We just won’t do it because we have too much respect for [chief executive] Terry Reader and the team at the Dolphins and what they’ve achieved the past few years – they’ve worked so hard to get to where they are now,” Souths chief executive Blake Solly said.
“We’re not that sort of club. We plan to sign a new coach, and we hope it is a matter of weeks rather than months … but it will be for next year.
“We’re more than happy with Ben and the coaching group we have for the remainder of this year.”
Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson welcomed the return of Bennett to the club’s arch rivals.
“It’s always good for the game to have Wayne coaching, the legend that he is, and I think it sounds like it’s already been done, doesn’t it? If Wayne says it’s, it’s done - I think that’s how it works,” Robinson said.
“I think they’ve rolled out the red carpet and said, ‘please say yes’, so I think if that’s the case then if Wayne wants it, and it was a great rivalry a few years ago. He’s the best coach that’s ever been, so it’s a pretty clear choice of his if he wants it.”
Replies
He wont be hiding he will just laugh and say nice things.
"Jim, you are a f***ing idiot" "Thank you mate, we are working really hard to get this club where it should be, Brad is great isn't he?"
He wouldn't do that facetiously either, i think that is how he would believe it.
I think the football club board needs someone like Phil Sim as his judgment could be invaluable.
Exactly, Frankie. Captain and I were just talking about that yesterday. Phil would be better for us on the Footy board.
The thing is even though Phil is on the PLC League's Club they still meet with the PNRL Footy Club meet regularly.
They have their annual AGM meetings or whatever, where even life member Fitzy, meet at Parra Leagues's Club Bar and Grill or wherever.
The PLC still own the PNRL for all the talk of financial independence and so on.
Surely, Phil could have or would have said a few things to the footy board during their get togethers. Even Fitzy might have said something of footy relevance (age regression, new ideas and voice). Dunno. Perhaps it all fell on deaf ears at McElduff (Chairman) and Sarantonis (CEO) and the footy board?
I mean you just need to "read" and comprehend basic cold hard stats, which I or any other numbskull can, to see the alarming issues we have and look at the age of our key players who are 30-31 in a few months (Paolo, RCG, Gutherson, Matto, Sivo, Lane). It screams desperate change is needed. Now that we have lost Gutho, it's hard to imagine how much further we can fall. Our structures without Moses (and his kicking game) fall into a rubble.
Only Wishart (utility part time winger playing av 30mins per game) and Munro (who got injured after 19mins in R6) have made less metres per game. To'o is number one. Lomax is top five or whatever.
Hahaha HOE I was being sarcastic champ , his judgment is famous for be wrong a lot of the time.
Frankie! Bloomin heck. lol Surely he can see all of this that we all see, too? He can't have that much of a blind spot. And he loves the club.
Imagine in a few years or so from now, our core group is approaching mid 30s, if they make it that far. It's only going to get worse.
HOE the reforms have really fucked the club because we had the wrong people involved , Max Donnelly should never of been allowed to select the board because he had no experience or understanding of what was required to run a club .
Members lost a lot of power and were warned and now we are seeing the end result of the reforms which is a below standard footy board , and the worst part is that members have no say as the leagues club board select who sits on the footy board .
Now I ask you to go and look at every member of the leagues club board and name me one member who gives you a ounce of confidence that they know that type of people are required to run a football club?
The club is in a bad way old son and the only way to focus it is you rip up the new reforms and start from scratch with people who are more qualified to come up with the right balance for new reforms .
Today 2 new directors were selected to join the footy club board by the leagues club , one is Sue Coleman 🤣🤣🤣🤣 now go look at her credentials and background and tell me what she will offer ?
Frankie, Yep, some fair points.
On Sue Coleman, hasn't she been with us for some time? And her profile says she held a position on our PNRL footy board before.
She was at the 66th AGM (Jack's Bar and Grill) on 27 Feb 2024 in her capacity as a director of the League's Board where they announed her winning vote (and Monaghan's) in the minutes. See below.
Old Roy Spagnolo came third in the votes. Geez he's still hanging around, along with Dennis.
I suppose I can understand her role as in some advisory or liason capacity between the club and councils given her 20 years plus experience in the public sector (Fairfield and Parramatta councils I believe) if the club needs to interact with councils for any renovation or development work (as many clubs diversifying). You know councils are a pain in the backside. So, she'd probably help here.
She's also there for community work which as you know all clubs are big on.
She's not there for her footballing nous or prowess, you'd imagine (O'Niell HOF in theory is there for that).
So, I'm not sure why they needed to flippity flop her back and forth onto the footy board again spending time voting and so on?
Seems a waste of time and resources IMO. Inefficiency at play.
A corporation could go into receivership if it ran itself like that over every lateral move within the organisation (and it's hardly a role change). I doubt she's going to suddenly start making footy decisions on Pathways (O'Neil does that). She's going to stick to what she's good at since she's been at the club (on whichever board PLC or PNRL). I suppose it's more a technicality with all the red tape and legalities' bollocks.
PS: The club make it a bloody difficult maze for normal folk to make heads or tails of who's who, where and when in the zoo.
PSS: Holy Feck, I didn't realize MM was at these AGM meetings. I know her for over 40 years. We've never talked footy before lol, because she seemed to be interested in local community related stuff. Scouts and the like.
Yep Sue are the exact types on a sporting club board who will not do whatever it takes for that club to be successful on the field immediately.
Injuries or not the club has been exposed with an aging roster not suited to the quick game with 6 agains where teams can score 3 quick tries with the right momentum which we don't seem to be able to stop.
The aging roster, lack of capable reserves ready to step up and a lack of match fitness and mental strength all fall under the head coach responsibilities and have massive fail marks. As has our failure to address an increasing points conceded the last few years. Our away record and goal line defense is amongst the worse in the comp.
The lack of depth, fitness and mental strength doesn't change if Moses played. All that happens is his kicking game masks over our sides deficiencies as outlined in earlier blog with variety of statistics proving the club is on a downward trajectory despite results which can gloss over the issues which relates to coaching
Lets wait and see. Not all is what it may appear. Shock and awe is coming.
-
15
-
16
-
17
-
18
-
19
of 19 Next