NRL 2023: Manly v South Sydney clash ignited by bitter rivalry between Seibold and Demetriou

The Anthony Seibold-Jason Demetriou backstory has had its share of prickly moments. Now that their rivalry is front and centre again through Manly and Souths, will it carry the same venom?

Anthony Seibold and Jason Demetriou's feud dates back years.

It goes without saying the private brawl between Manly coach Anthony Seibold and Souths coach Jason Demetriou will shake your particular earth according to colours running through your veins.

Manly fans, trying to protect a roster ready to make a run at the premiership anytime soon, will back Seibold’s side, fighting anything that might upset the feel good vibes coming out of Brookvale, Souths fans will stay strong behind Demetriou, while the rest of us wonder where the tickets are selling.

Rugby league is a tribal game, we all concede, and a little known historical fact is there can be no tribes without tribal wars.

Yet like rugby league’s best feuds, it went underground on Friday with Seibold and Demetriou both claiming there was nothing more to see here.

READ MORE ON THE DEMETRIOU-SEIBOLD FEUD BELOW

Anthony Seibold and Jason Demetriou have played down their feud but does time heal all wounds?

“At different times, you could handle things better or differently but I’ve moved on,” Seibold said. “All that stuff is in the past.

“I’ve only met Jason once and he seemed like a really good guy, and obviously a really sharp coach.”

It was an olive branch Demetriou was happy to pick up.

“He seems like a decent bloke and it’s great to see young coaches back in the game,” he said.

“I wish him all the best except for the 80 minutes on Saturday night.”

Wars between coaches are not new, and have been happening at least since Pony Holloway ordered his troops to kick high and follow on.

Whenever Jack Gibson was lauded as rugby league’s greatest coach Warren Ryan would turn a certain shade of green.

In pure coaching terms the Wok changed the game at least as much as Jack did, and many will say more, but his prickly manner meant he was never fully acknowledged for it. An oversight he resented, naturally.

Later, Wayne Bennett and Brian Smith shared a particular enemy-ship that got so comical Smith was always trying to find new ways to shake Bennett’s hand after games as Bennett was finding new ways to hide from it.

Ricky Stuart is off every coach he comes up against, just the depth varies, and most will admit to a little of that as well when they are being honest.

Where it began between Seibold and Demetriou nobody outside the two brawlers is quite certain, and they aren’t forthcoming with information.

Jason Demetriou was always handed the reins when Wayne Bennett’s team would come up against Anthony Seibold’s Broncos.

So far as anyone can tell, it began when both interviewed for the Brisbane job as Wayne Bennett was being run out of town.

Demetriou was Bennett’s assistant and, goes the narrative, aware that Seibold was shaping as his main rival for the job, part of his presentation was his record against Seibold whenever their teams had come up against each other in the Queensland Cup.

Seibold was hot off a run in his first year as Souths coach, taking over from Michael Maguire and taking the Rabbitohs all the way to the 2018 preliminary final and the Dally M Coach of the Year.

How much of that was residual from Maguire’s stint would become clear only later.

What is certain is that Seibold is a very good powerpoint coach. Nobody interviews quite like him.

There have been some good ones over time — us veterans with bad backs and full memories can still remember the coach who faced the board a decade or so ago where it was going to be explained why they were sacking him, immediately, only for him to walk out with a one-year extension.

Give him a powerpoint and a closed door and nobody is getting out alive.

Some say Seibold told Brisbane officials he was three years ahead of other coaches in the game during his interview, a line that stuck with the Broncos enough for them to give him the job.

Others claim it a malicious lie. Either way, it still goes around the game from time to time.

I remember sitting with Seibold in his Brisbane office soon after he got the job, with a whiteboard that ran through the Broncos depth of talent in front of him.

The Broncos’ operation was state of the art and seemingly a perfect fit for Seibold.

Everything you needed to know about a player was there on the computer.

That day in his office he said the Broncos were physically years behind where the Rabbitohs were in terms of fitness.

All the data showed it.

I asked whether that meant pouring an intense off-season into them to bring them up to speed.

No, he said. Too much too soon could burn them out, he said, running the risk of them collapsing midway through the season.

It made a certain kind of sense, so far as all the modern science in coaching these days makes sense. Marathons are full of runners collapsing for the same reason.

Regardless it soon became clear in his first season the Broncos were physically a step behind many teams.

Seibold, in that first season, was looking a genius.

Right up until the end when the Broncos played Parramatta in the first week of finals.

A month earlier it had escaped that, every time Bennett came up against Seibold, Demetriou would take over the coaching because he knew how to coach against Seibold’s style.

Demetriou, it was claimed, had said “teams worked his style out”, which was enough for Bennett to toss him the whistle.

Anthony Seibold has the Sea Eagles firing on all cyclinders at Brookvale Oval. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Seibold returned fire a day later, saying he didn’t even know who Demetriou was, to keep his head down, that maybe he was dirty he was still an assistant coach, and then rattled off a startling number of Demetriou’s stats to show why he wasn’t worried.

Then the Broncos got walloped 58-0 to Parramatta in that final.

The troubling part was that the Broncos began the next season still physically off the pace.

Another off-season and they still hadn’t closed the gap, at last not enough.

Compare that to how Todd Payten turned his Cowboys around over one torturous summer, the Cowboys earning blisters on their feet as they suffered blisters on their backs, and suddenly the sports science was not so overwhelming.

Who knows why the Broncos were slow to pick up; maybe it’s something us non-Harvard graduates will just have to ponder.

Seibold lasted only half the season after that as everything began to collapse around him, his private life crashing with his professional life, but now he is back with a squad at Manly that can shake their own earth when they get going.

“It was brutal in Brisbane and also with the abuse he copped on the web and for his family as well,” Demetriou said.

“No one wants that and no one wants to see any coach go through that.

“I think there’s a real importance for coaches to have each other’s backs.”

Seibold found sympathy from Demetriou, one of the game’s most decent men, for a time when he needed it.

It does ask if the feud has gone underground, or if it was over before it ever really got going.

Not sure the Wok (Ryan) would approve.

BITTER WAR OF WORDS THAT IGNITED NRL’S FORGOTTEN FEUD

Brent Read and Peter Badel

Rugby league’s newest rivalry is set to explode on Friday night.

A day later, an old one is set to reignite.

Manly coach Anthony Seibold and South Sydney’s Jason Demetriou have history dating back to when the pair were locked in the race to take over from Wayne Bennett at the Broncos.

When Demetriou interviewed with Brisbane powerbrokers for the role, he referred to his coaching record in Queensland Cup against Seibold’s teams under a graphic labelled ‘Merit’.

The slide showed Demetriou held a decisive advantage but it wasn’t enough to get him over the line – Seibold won the day and Demetriou was among the assistants who were later cut loose by the Broncos, leaving him to pick up the pieces at the Rabbitohs.

The feud kicked off when Seibold pipped Demetriou to become Broncos coach in 2019. Picture: Annette Dew

The pair later exchanged barbs when Brisbane played against South Sydney in 2019.

Demetriou, at the time working with Bennett at Souths, had made some comments about Seibold’s finals record.

“Teams worked his style out,” Demetriou said.

“Last year, in 160 minutes of football under Seibold in the finals, his Souths team managed one try. On the biggest stage in the biggest games, their attack fell down.’’

Seibold returned serve with interest.

“With regards to Jason, one thing I learned a long time ago is that as an assistant coach you put your head down and your bum up and you work hard,” Seibold said at the time.

“You don’t need to promote yourself. I am not sure if he is dirty that his name hasn’t come up for a few head coaching roles or not, but I will say this – Jason’s attention to detail is a little bit off with some of the comments that I believe he made.”

He then added: “My advice to Jason would be to work hard and let your work do the promotion for yourself.”

Demetriou has made a name for himself as a head coach by helping turn the Rabbitohs into one of the game’s powerhouses.

Demetriou did just that. He put his head down, honed his craft under Bennett and now he and Seibold will lock horns for the first official time as NRL head coaches – Demetriou covered for Bennett on two occasions as Souths coach, including once against the Seibold-led Broncos.

The Rabbitohs are very much his team and they will meet a Manly side flying under Seibold on Saturday night.

Neither man was willing to stoke the fires this week, although it is understood there has been little contact between the pair over the ensuing years.

‘I can’t believe we’re talking about Jason Demetriou.... He’s clearly missed a few stats, which is probably why he’s not a head coach yet.’ #[e-mail]/Rd5A3xIY7t

— Veronica Eggleton (@veggleton) August 21, 2019

The former Rabbitohs coach has hit the ground running on Sydney’s northern beaches, his success coming to the delight of some of his former players at South Sydney, where he was Dally M coach of the year in 2018 before leaving to take over Brisbane.

“I really enjoyed Seibs as a coach and mate as well,” said Souths hooker Damien Cook.

“It was hard to see him go through some tough times but great to see him back coaching again – he is a very smart coach.

Anthony Seibold has led Manly to an undefeated start through the early rounds. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“It is great to see him doing well but hopefully we can get out there and beat them this week. There were definitely a couple of phone calls between us.

“It is great to see him back. Like I said, he is a great coach and it is great to see him doing well over there.

“I am sure he would know I am happy for him – which I am. Like I said, he deserves to be coaching. He is a good head coach and he has that role again.”

Cook had no doubt Seibold would get another chance.

‘You see some go and be assistants,” Cook said.

“I thought he always deserved to be a head coach – he was just waiting for the right time. He waited his time and took his opportunity when he got it again.”