{"id":389927,"date":"2024-05-02T02:45:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T02:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389927"},"modified":"2024-05-02T04:05:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T04:05:45","slug":"bennett-twist-that-could-scupper-souths-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=389927","title":{"rendered":"Bennett twist that could scupper Souths reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffndrew Johns<\/a> has cast doubt over Wayne Bennett<\/a>'s desire to return to the South Sydney<\/a> coaching hot seat.<\/p>\n

Bennett quickly emerged as the frontrunner to secure the job after the Rabbitohs sacked his former deputy Jason Demetriou<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

About 13 hours after axing Demetriou, Bunnies CEO Blake Solly confirmed the club will pursue a Bennett return.<\/p>\n

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The 74-year-old will finish his duties with the Dolphins at season's end and is a free agent for 2025 and beyond.<\/p>\n

Bennett confirmed he will consider returning to the Burrow, but there may be more than one club after his services by the time it comes to making the decision.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Parramatta is battling to win without halfback Mitchell Moses, and long-time head coach Brad Arthur is in the gun.<\/p>\n

Johns believes if the Eels are after a new coach for next year, Bennett will be keen to take it on.<\/p>\n

"I don't know, I don't think (Bennett will coach the Rabbitohs)… does Wayne want to go to a club where they have to do a rebuild?" Johns said on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and the Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"Their top-line players, or their well paid players, are over 30 (years old).<\/p>\n

"I'd imagine if there are two jobs up for offer – Souths and if Parramatta came up – I reckon Wayne would prefer the Parramatta job.<\/p>\n

"He's got an affiliation, he loved (legendary coach) Jack Gibson, had a relationship with Ron Massey.<\/p>\n

"I think with Moses and Dylan Brown there, Zac Lomax is going there, Junior Paulo, Reagan Campbell-Gillard… there is a strong squad, more stability in the key positions.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

\"Gould<\/p>\n

It's widely believed Bennett wants to win another NRL premiership before hanging up the clipboard.<\/p>\n

While the Rabbitohs and Eels have both played in – and lost – grand finals in the last three years, Parramatta's premiership window may be slightly more open given the age of their best players.<\/p>\n

Phil Gould cautioned South Sydney against putting all their eggs in the Bennett basket\ufeff, questioning why Solly would make their pursuit of one coach so public.<\/p>\n

"They've announced they're going to go and chase Bennett – what if Bennett says no?" Gould told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\ufeffGould suggested current Newcastle assistant Brian McDermott is the man South Sydney should chase to replace Demetriou<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffndrew Johns has cast doubt over Wayne Bennett's desire to return to the South Sydney coaching hot seat. Bennett quickly emerged as the frontrunner to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":389936,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389927\/revisions\/389936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/306339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}