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
Maybe this article is true or maybe it's filled with only partial, misleading truths. Dunno. But there are a lot of cloak & daggers in misty shadows. The three year offer sounds completely true.
But here is the real head scratcher.
Allegedly, Bennett asks someone to act anonymously and secretly on his behalf (someone he trusted) - this "third party" representative - whom made it seems not-to-discreet inquiries with our board to see whether they were interested in sacking Arthur and replacing him with Bennett. Does that sound like Bennett?
To which our board, in all their infinite wisdom said, "No thanks, pass, not right now." This part wouldn't surprise me if true. I don't think our board is quite ready to act decisively. Is that something new?
But, then somehow this trusted, anonymous "third party" source of Bennett's was "compromised" by some other "anonymous source" or was the actual source to leak all this anonymously to the media (which Bennett does not like to divulge or leak much to, traditionally).
Dunno. One face value, it looks like Dumb and Dumber meets Spies are Us in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Still, absolutely, there is a lot of shady stuff in our game. So, I wouldn't discount all of it.
Another version of this story, if it's partially true, could be something like this. Someone heard Bennett was interested - he's probably considering all his options including PNG or whatever is the new franchise not just the Souths/Eels. Then, they went all rodeo-cowboy (or is a low-level grey hat) in cahoots with the media.
Yeah I agree. Who knows how much of this is actually true. Surely the board if directly approached by a Brennett rep to coach Parra next season wouldn't have just knocked it back. I mean that's crazy
The thing is sheeit sticks to the fan, even if it's thrown from outside the window by some anonymous passer-by with an agenda. Look at the title: "Eels pass on Supercoach".
The thing I've taken out of all this and this is why I don't believe the Parra interest was legit.
Wayne has mentioned he won't be talking to any club that has a coach that is still employed.
I been quoting Muttman alot lately but if we were truely after Bennett the time to move a coach is now during the bye week.Stick Barrett in as your interim and negotiate accordingly.But since our board don't want to rush into this decision we'll most probably miss this opportunity.
I reckon the boards hand may be forced one the fans read the article whether it's legit or not
Even if it's true I reckon bennett will wait a couple more weeks tbh there's no rush to sign anything yet.
Hopefully the club get bombarded with emails threatening to hand their memberships in and also hope the media hammer the club on a daily basis about the board etc
It really hope so
I'm going to email - not a member but will refuse to buy any tickets til they get their shit together or buy merch
Good stuff Carlo I'll be also doing the same I won't be renewing my membership
I sent the email just to membership
hopefully they get enough
I said all the families that are eels supporters will encourage their children not to follow- esp those like myself who have moved away
Not expecting a reply
mb I should have researched if the board members have individual emails 🤔
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