Rabbitohs name Adam Reynolds as new captain for 2020 NRL Season
Adam Reynolds grew up worshipping the Rabbitohs and now he has is locked in as Souths’ new skipper and will lead a new look side against the Dragons in the Charity Shield.
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Adam Reynolds will captain the NRL club he grew up idolising after being named South Sydney skipper for 2020.
As reported by The Daily Telegraph, Reynolds will lead the Rabbitohs following the retirements of Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess.
A Rabbitohs junior, Reynolds debuted for Souths in 2012 and has played 183 games for the club.
“I’ve always hoped that I would be considered for the captaincy so to have this opportunity is a dream come true,” Reynolds said.
“I grew up across the road from Redfern Oval in apartments on Elizabeth Street and always wanted to play for Souths, so to have the chance to captain the team is amazing.
“It’s not a one man job here at Souths, so it’s great to know I’ll have Cody (Walker) and Cookie (Damien Cook) alongside me in the leadership group in 2020.”
Reynolds’ will get his first game in the new job as he leads Souths new look side in Saturday night’s Charity Shield clash with St George Illawarra.
Latrell Mitchell will make his club debut playing at fullback, while Wayne Bennett has confirmed Liam Knight will start at lock, with Cameron Murray shifting to an edge.
Michael Ennis saw enough positive signs in Latrell Mitchell’s All Stars performance to know his controversial positional switch to fullback won’t be the disaster some are predicting for South Sydney.
In fact, Ennis reckons when Mitchell consistently plays alongside Reynolds, Cody Walker and Damien Cook it will give the Rabbitohs one of the NRL’s most dangerous spines.
Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett was also happy with what he saw and is not about to do a backflip on his plans ahead of this weekend’s Charity Shield in Mudgee.
He will remember being criticised for moving Darren Lockyer from fullback to five-eighth many years ago.
Souths fans will get their first chance to watch their entire new spine in action in the Charity Shield and Ennis believes Mitchell will be better for the run, especially after a shortened pre-season.
Andrew Johns led the criticism last week when he said he did not think Mitchell was a fullback but rather “an out and out centre”, and that the increased workload would “dull his effectiveness”.
However, while Mitchell was far from a standout on the Gold Coast, Ennis believes he should not be disappointed.
“I agree with what Laurie Daley said after the game,” Ennis said.
“I thought Latrell was never going to be the finished product, but his effort was good and in his attention to detail you could see him thinking where he needed to be.
“Defensively at times you could see him talking and moving the side around, so I thought it was a really good start for him.”
Plenty would have liked to see Mitchell get more involved in attack but Ennis said he thought the All Stars game was always going to be tough for the star to impose himself on.
“Just because, one, the speed of the game that it was played at, but also they threw a bit of caution to the wind at times,” Ennis said.
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“So it wasn’t like he could get a lot of rhythm because there was a bit of turnover.
“But I think just the timing is what is important. I don’t think it was about how well he played in this game.
“I think it was just about him getting out there and getting himself started.
“Because the key is for Latrell to play back-to-back games with Reynolds and Walker and Cook at Souths. If they can stay on the field together, there is some talent in that spine.”
There was also a lot to like about James Roberts in the All-Stars clash. He looked fast and fit, while Alex Johnston was impressive when he filled in for Mitchell at fullback.
Souths’ depth at fullback was also on show on Friday night in the trial against Parramatta when Corey Allen put in an impressive effort.
The Rabbitohs are expected to offer Hame Sele a top-30 contract after he impressed in the 28-24 trial match win at Ringrose Park.