Demetriou the first NRL coach to be sacked this season

The South Sydney Rabbitohs have sacked head coach Jason Demetriou, marking the first major coaching change for any NRL club in the 2024 season.

Ben Hornby will now take the reigns for the Rabbitohs in an interim role for the remainder of the 2024 season alongside assistant coaches John Sutton and David Furner.

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Bunnies bosses deliberated over Demetriou’s fate for weeks, first deciding to sack him nearly 14 days ago then backflipping, and then this week holding two meetings on the topic on Tuesday—and eventually deciding to show him the door.

“Following a meeting of the Football Club Board, in conjunction with club management, it has been decided that the club needs to go in a new direction with its coaching following a less-than-satisfactory series of results over the 2023 and 2024 seasons,” the club said in a statement shared on Tuesday evening.

After the release, Rabbitohs chief executive Blake Solly added: “There is no doubting Jason’s work ethic or his drive for success, but unfortunately that success has not been forthcoming over the past 12 months.”

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David Furner has emerged as an early contender to be the next Rabbitohs head coach from 2025 onward, though Wayne Bennett has also been mentioned several times already.