The Rabbitohs have put together a three-year offer for Wayne Bennett to return to South Sydney, and unless the Dolphins come up trumps quickly, the 74-year-old could well be holding the reigns at Redfern again later this year.
There was some early interest from Parramatta about replacing Brad Arthur with Bennett, but the Eels have since ruled themselves out of the brewing battle for the supercoach.
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The main reason, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported today, was because Eels bosses sat down for a meeting on Wednesday and thrashed out exactly what’s been going wrong for the club. The main things they flagged weren’t to do with Arthur; instead, injuries to key personnel like Mitch Moses and Clint Gutherson were blamed.
That leaves the Rabbitohs and Dolphins crossing pens for Bennett’s signature.
The biggest sticking point, The Sporting Base understands, is that the 74-year-old doesn’t want any less than three years on his next deal—which could easily be his last. The Dolphins only want to offer him two.
The Bunnies, meanwhile, are more than happy to pay the supercoach whatever he wants and for however long he wants, as long as it steers them out of the doldrums they’ve hit in the last 12 months. Under Bennett they made two preliminary finals and a grand final, before missing finals last season and slumping to 17th this campaign.
If anything does happen, however, it won’t be until 2025.
“We just won’t do it [push for Bennett to leave early], 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 in an honest assessment of their future moves.
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“We’re just not that sort of club. We do plan to sign a new head coach… 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.”
