Wayne Bennett’s right-hand man Jason Demetriou to take up assistant coach role with South Sydney
As the Wayne Bennett era begins at South Sydney, the veteran coach will have a familiar face on the training ground, with sacked Broncos assistant coach Jason Demetriou joining the Rabbitohs.
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South Sydney are poised to announce that Jason Demetriou will be part of Wayne’s new world at Redfern.
The Daily Telegraph has been told that Wayne Bennett’s assistant coach at Brisbane will replace former South Sydney assistant coach David Furner, who has taken up the position as head coach of English Super League giants Leeds.
There is even a suggestion that Demetriou is in line to replace Bennett at Souths from 2022.
While not yet a done deal, the arrival of Demetriou, 42, at Redfern is expected to be announced before Christmas.
Brisbane sacked the man described as “Bennett’s right-hand man” on the day new Broncos coach Anthony Seibold arrived at Red Hill.
Seibold took his Souths assistant Peter Gentle with him to Brisbane.
A source has also claimed that several Broncos players had been in touch with Bennett and that life in Brisbane wasn’t as rosy as it should be.
Rumours also persist that the rabbitohs haven’t given up on signing rampaging Broncos forward Tevita Pangai Jr, despite him signing a one-year extension with Brisbane last week.
Pangai Jr was born in Sydney and played his junior football in the Newcastle district.
The arrival of Demetriou at Souths would be a surprise considering just last week Bennett said he would not be luring any former members of his Broncos coaching staff to his new club.
“No, he’s not coming,’’ Bennett said of Demetriou. “Not at the moment, nope.
“Never been part of the discussions here. None of the Broncos staff have ever been part of the discussions.
“They had the staff here, they were happy with the staff. That was where it stopped, it didn’t even start.
“When I was interviewed for the 2020 job, (South Sydney general manager of football) Shane Richardson told me I couldn’t bring staff with me.
“I mentioned bringing staff. He got in first and said they had a wonderful staff here and they were happy with them, they were all contracted.
“I said ‘that’s fine, Shane, I don’t want someone losing their job because I’ve turned up’. That’s how it has turned out.’’
Brisbane’s high-performance chief Jeremy Hickmans and chief analyst Scott Barker are also expected to be unemployed soon.
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Originally published as Wayne Bennett’s right-hand man Jason Demetriou to take up assistant coach role with South Sydney
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