South Sydney boss Blake Solly has fired back at the manager of Jason Demetriou after sacking the coach on Tuesday night.
The Rabbitohs called a board meeting for 8am on Tuesday, but then took an hours-long recess before reconvening at 5pm and ultimately sacking the coach about two hours later.
Long-time 9News reporter Danny Weidler said he had never seen a club board meet twice in one day to discuss the fate of a coach.
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When fronting media on Wednesday, Solly explained club chairman Nick Pappas "needed some sleep" given he was phoning in from London, where he is on a business trip.
But the unfortunate day-long circus left Demetriou hanging as speculation about his job swirled, leading to his agent Chris Orr giving both barrels to Bunnies powerbrokers in an interview with News Corp.
"It was a long day… To be honest, it wasn't fair to have your head coach waiting around all day just to be axed," Orr said.
"Coaches are human beings with families and I thought South Sydney's process was extremely cruel."
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While Orr's criticism was focused on Tuesday's events, and not over a longer period, Solly took the opportunity to return serve.
"I don't agree," Solly said in response to Orr.
"Jason spent three years here as an assistant coach, was appointed to succeed Wayne (Bennett) very early on in his tenure.
"The club gave Jason every opportunity to have success and for half of that period here he did, but results over the last 12 months haven't been good enough for a club of our stature.
"While it's no criticism of Jason and how hard he works, the last 20 games sort of speak for themselves.
"For his agent to say he's been treated shabbily in the context of a year's worth of patience and support I think is unfair. And I'm not sure that Jason would share that view."
South Sydney sits bottom of the NRL ladder with just one win from seven games this season.
Ben Hornby will take the reins as interim coach.
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