Bennett is the good cop Souths need – but can’t be trusted with their future

Bennett is all but a done deal at Souths, although it’s never a done deal with Bennett until the contract is signed. He agreed to terms with St George Illawarra for 2015, shaking hands with then chief executive Peter Doust, before reneging at the last minute to join the Broncos after News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch stepped in.

If Souths do land Bennett as expected, those in charge at the Rabbitohs will need to make sure they don’t make the mistakes that created the mess they presently find themselves in.

Otherwise, in three years’ time when he leaves for another club, they’ll be no better off.

Bennett can’t be allowed to appoint his successor, nor can he have too much say in the roster.

Sure, Bennett wants success for the “young men” he coaches, but make no mistake: first and foremost he wants success for himself.

When Brisbane sacked him in late 2018 and Souths came after him, certain people at the Rabbitohs wanted a succession plan in place.

Fair enough, too, because of the so-called “Bennett curse” of clubs collapsing whenever he leaves.

When he was at the Broncos, Bennett had earmarked Demetriou, his assistant, to take over at the end of 2019.

Instead, he believed the club was working behind his back and had already appointed Kevin Walters – a suspicion that didn’t come true, with the job going to Anthony Seibold.

When Bennett signed with Souths, he didn’t initially flag Demetriou but floated the idea of Mick Ennis, whom he had coached as a player.

That didn’t eventuate and Demetriou was anointed as the next in line.

Despite Souths’ best intentions to avoid the inevitable vacuum created when the most successful coach of the modern-era leaves, appointing an assistant to follow him has never worked.

A former Queensland policeman, Bennett plays the role of good cop with his players while the assistant plays the role of bad cop.

In some cases, he will ridicule the assistant to earn the support of the playing group.

In 1998, when he was coaching the Broncos, he lured Bellamy from Canberra and made him his “fitness coordinator”.

Before one match, Bellamy gave a thorough rundown of the opposition before Bennett eventually butted in.

“Craig, well done – that’s great,” he said. “But it’s not about them, it’s about these boys in here … Now go and get your shit done!”

As Gorden Tallis, who was in the room, has told me: “You wouldn’t treat your assistants like that, would you? Craig Bellamy handled it like the professional that he was.”

Bellamy was also smart enough to start his NRL coaching career at Melbourne in 2003, not in Bennett’s footsteps at Brisbane.

Bennett indulges his superstar players because superstar players deliver the one thing by which he judges himself as a coach: premierships.

He indulged Allan Langer and Kevin Walters at the Broncos when they broke curfews. He indulged Sam Burgess at Souths, then Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker – as long as they performed at the weekend.

Bennett is prehistoric in comparison to the young, free-spirited players he coaches, but he gets them onside by playing the dag, by being Grandpa Simpson.

“Get this dollar-fifty shit off!” he would joke to the Souths players when US rapper 50 Cent was playing in the gym.

When Walker had a poor game, he would beat himself up. Bennett would know this and phone him the day after losses to tell him he wasn’t to blame – even if he was.

When it all became too much for Mitchell, Bennett would dispatch the fullback to his farm near Taree or talk to him about cattle prices.

That’s a special relationship that few coaches can replicate. Demetriou tried and failed – and it cost him his job.

Souths chief executive Blake Solly was bombarded with tough questions at an all-in media session at Heffron Park on Wednesday, and he handled them with typical aplomb.

But you had to smile when he said this of Demetriou: “Unfortunately, we didn’t think that Jason’s coaching style would be able to get the change we needed or the improvement we needed.”

Somewhere in the world, say Warrington in the north of England, Sam Burgess choked on the pickled egg he was eating.

Burgess, you recall, raised the same questions about Demetriou’s coaching style in August last year, was roundly dismissed and subsequently left the club.

Since then, Souths have won one NRL premiership match.

The other great mistake Souths made last time with Bennett was giving him a say in the roster towards the end of his contract.

Solly on Wednesday defended the club’s decision to only offer former captain and halfback Adam Reynolds a one-year extension in 2021, effectively pushing him out the door to the Broncos.

“We weren’t in a position at the time to do it in the salary cap restraints we had,” Solly said. “It’s hard to regret something you don’t have control over.”

But Souths did have control.

A plan was hatched to move prop Liam Knight to the Bulldogs midway through that season, freeing up cap space to offer Reynolds a longer deal.

The idea was rejected by Bennett, who had his eyes on a premiership in his final season and wanted to keep Knight as a back-up middle forward.

Knight didn’t play in the finals series after suffering concussion before being released to join the Bulldogs last year.

Wayne Bennett is the good cop South Sydney needs – but the long-term future of the club can’t be left in his hands.

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