Paul Kent: Adam Reynolds saga coming back to bite the Rabbitohs

By deciding Adam Reynolds would no longer be part of the club’s future, and with no replacement immediately ready, Souths are tacitly saying 2022 is not a high importance, writes Paul Kent.

The Rabbitohs were belted by the Panthers in Dubbo. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

The Mood Doctor had them purring along perfectly earlier this season.

Wayne Bennett reads footballers like Bart Cummings read horses, with a quiet hand.

So as South Sydney scrapped its way to wins over the likes of Wests Tigers and Gold Coast, winning without being overly impressive, Bennett shrugged and said enough to keep the mood strong in camp.

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He was hardly coaching hard. Bennett likes to time his teams to come into the finals with momentum, which requires a surge about six weeks out from the playoffs.

Until then the job is always winning within themselves.

The Rabbitohs were belted by the Panthers in Dubbo last weekend.

Then Melbourne touched up Souths three weeks back. Some were quick to point to the collected history that said no team had ever conceded 50 points in a season and come back to win the premiership. Others sniffed, saying such records were meant to be broken.

For those believers, that Melbourne beat them 50-0 had more to do with Latrell Mitchell, Cameron Murray, Campbell Graham, Adam Reynolds, Liam Knight and Josh Mansour all being unavailable and that the story would be different upon their return.

Under the new game and its tremendous pace such a scoreline was also possible.

It has all changed now, though. All but Murray were back in the Rabbitohs team last Sunday when they went down 56-12 to Penrith.

One 50-point loss is bad enough. Two might be time to plan the end of season trip.

It points to a bigger problem at Souths.

For all the self-congratulation about how they manage themselves as a club, applause that starts at the very top, the Rabbitohs have made an almighty mistake.

If there is an undisputed truth to rugby league it is that distracted teams never realise their potential. The distractions can come from anywhere.

It seems when South Sydney officials made it clear that Adam Reynolds was no longer part of their future, they were telling the rest of the Rabbitohs their future was not a high priority as well.

To a man all the players spoke in support of Reynolds while remaining mindful who paid the bills. It made for awkward dialogue. Bennett and Reynolds and everyone else did their best to move past it but, slowly, the reality emerged.

Adam Reynolds will depart the Rabbitohs at the end of the season to join Brisbane.

The Rabbitohs have earmarked two young players as Reynolds’ long-term replacement: Blake Taaffe and Lachlan Ilias.

Yet when Reynolds broke his hand before Melbourne, Bennett decided Benji Marshall, in his last season, would play in the halves alongside the inexperienced Dean Hawkins.

If nothing else, it showed that neither Taaffe or Ilias are considered ready to step into the big job just yet.

By deciding Reynolds would no longer be part of the club’s future then, with no replacement halfback immediately ready, the Rabbitohs are also tacitly telling their players that next season is not a high importance either.

Offloading Reynolds has sent an immediate message to the playing group. The club is no longer prioritising its immediate future and is prepared to wait until either Taaffe or Iliac mature, however long that takes.

If that comes at the cost of the next few years, apparently, so be it.

The mystery is where Bennett has been. Bennett is a players’ coach and also knows the greatest talent a coach can bring to a club is recruitment and retention.

There was a time in late 2019 when Souths were on the verge of letting Cody Walker go, for instance, to save enough money in the salary cap to retain Adam Doueihi, regarded as the club’s next long term five-eighth.

Wayne Bennett is in his last season with the Rabbitohs. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Bennett, who admittedly was on a timeframe, stepped in and told the Rabbitohs Walker must be a priority. Contracts were re-drawn, Walker was re-signed, and Doueihi now plays at Wests Tigers. Retaining Walker was a Bennett masterstroke.

Few coaches know what is required to win in the NRL like Bennett.

In Reynolds’ case, though, Bennett removed himself from the conversation after the Rabbitohs some time back appointed his assistant Jason Demetriou as head coach for 2022.

That Bennett is positioning for a job at one of the Brisbane franchises for the 2023 season, and Reynolds was potentially available before he ultimately signed with Brisbane for three years, added to the confusion.

All the messaging around Souths spruces of being the pride of the league, of values they suggest don’t exist at other clubs.

They proudly claim to have won the most premierships in the game’s history.

There is Old South Sydney and New South Sydney.

Old South Sydney won 20 premierships and would never have sacked a club stalwart like Reynolds, the homegrown club captain.

New South Sydney has won one premiership and let him go, the man who embodies all the club claims it stands for.