Sport Confidential: Alex Glenn and Daniel Vidot headline Caxton wresting event, Wayne Bennett hits back at Matt Lodge
Two former Broncos will be laying the smackdown on Friday night at the Caxton, while Wayne Bennett has delivered his own verbal blow on Matt Lodge. See the full SPORT CONFIDENTIAL.
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Former Broncos winger Daniel Vidot is back in Australia for a whirlwind wrestling event – seven years after his bold gamble to make it in the WWE.
Jordan Mailata may be the toast of Australian sport after his Super Bowl win this week, but Vidot is the other former league star who made history in the Land of Opportunity.
Vidot signed a US wrestling development contract in 2018 and was added to the WWE’s main roster five years later.
Under the ring name Xyon Quinn, the 112kg hulk appeared on Main Event, Raw and Smackdown in a stunning success story after 114 NRL games from 2009-17, including 31 for the Broncos.
Now Vidot will headline a wrestling event at The Caxton on Friday night, tag teaming with his former Broncos teammate Alex Glenn.
“It’s awesome being back home and seeing the friends and family,” said Vidot, who will then head for Japan to continue promoting wrestling.
“I came up with the idea to get ‘Lexi’ some ring time and what better place to do it than the Caxton.”
Glenn has worked on some moves with Vidot and learned the hard way that wrestling is far from a ‘fake’ sport.
“I took him through some tough sessions,” Vidot said with a laugh.
“Life in the US has been amazing. I’m about to embark on a new adventure over in Japan for a couple months and wrestle there so I’m super excited to learn their style before returning back to the states to continue my journey.
“I’ve always been a shoot-from-the-hip kinda guy it’s the kind of life I love and enjoy.
“I get paid to throw people around, life’s good.”
BENNETT HITS BACK AT CLAIMS HE DUDDED LODGE
Souths super coach Wayne Bennett has addressed speculation he dudded Matt Lodge over a proposed move to the Rabbitohs.
Breaking his silence on the saga, Bennett claims he made no promises to Lodge amid reports the controversial Manly prop was on the verge of inking a deal with South Sydney.
Lodge last week spoke out on his rumoured move to Redfern, hoping he would be in Souths colours in 2025, only to reveal he was blindsided by an unnamed Rabbitohs official, believed to be Bennett.
“I had sat out of this pre-season because I had conversations. I thought it was 99 per cent over the line, and I got told to tell my family (he would be at Souths),” Lodge said last week.
“Then I just had a quick call saying, ‘It’s not happening’, and he hung up.”
Bennett confirmed holding talks with Lodge, but said salary-cap pressures ultimately thwarted a reunion with the firebrand he coached at the Broncos in 2018.
“Look, I never guaranteed that Matt would be here,” he said.
“Unless you sign the contract, the deal isn’t done.
“Certainly, I was highly interested in him and at one stage we were close to approaching him with a deal or offering him a deal. But we never talked money. We never got to that place. He had a few things going on as well.
“At one stage I was looking at what we needed and didn’t need. I had a couple of good conversations with ‘Lodgey’. I enjoy talking to him, he is a pretty bright bloke and knows what he wants and where he is going, but at the end of the day we didn’t get down to doing the deal.
“We hadn’t met in person. We talked on the phone a couple of times.
“A couple of guys we were trying to move on didn’t move. I’m not disappointed those guys are still here, but they are here and that made it more difficult under the salary cap.
“We just decided we would stick with what we’ve got.
“We went in another direction and that was the end of it.”
Contacted by Sport Confidential, Lodge stood by his version of events, but says he holds no ill-feeling towards Bennett, who gave him a chance at the Broncos after his off-field drama in America in 2015.
“I thought I was for a good few months (to play for Souths) but shit happens. I’ll keep that between me and Wayne,” Lodge said.
“I don’t think I needed a lifeline from Wayne, he knows how I played the game. But he wanted me to go there. That’s the conversation we had. He said he needed someone tough in the middle with experience.
“He was keen on me and I was keen to be back with Wayne from our time at the Broncos.
“But all of a sudden it couldn’t happen. Anyway, I respect Wayne and I’ve moved on.”
QRL WIELDS AXE
The Queensland Rugby League is undergoing a mass transformation following numerous departures in the last week.
About a dozen staff at the state’s league headquarters have been tapped on the shoulder since last Friday.
The employees are from numerous departments including digital media, community and state operations.
A restructure of the organisation is underway and funding is heading in different directions.
Chief executive Ben Ikin declined to comment on the upheaval when contacted by Sport Confidential.
ROOSTERS UNEARTH ‘KOORI SONNY BILL’
The Sydney Roosters have unearthed a forward dynamo being hailed as the Koori version of Sonny Bill Williams.
Teen sensation Ethan Roberts is on the rise and has been named in the Indigenous All Stars squad for Saturday night’s clash against their Maori rivals at CommBank Stadium.
Roberts was hoping to break into the NRL last season, only to suffer a shoulder injury that denied him a top-grade debut.
But the 19-year-old is tipped as one of the next big things at Bondi, with good judges describing him as an Indigenous version of NRL and All Blacks legend SBW.
“Ethan is a gun, he’s the Koori Sonny Bill Williams,” said an NRL scout.
“He is a clean-living kid, tough and a great defender.
“He’s got football in his bloodlines.”
The Moree back-rower’s father played lower grade for the Roosters and his great uncle is Paul Roberts, who played 70 games for South Sydney from 1986-91.
The Rabbitohs were keen to sign Roberts but the Roosters have kept their inner-city rivals at bay.
Roberts turned out for Moree Boomerangs at last year’s Koori Knockout and hopes to break into the NRL in 2025.
WALKER PAIRS WITH GOLF GREAT
The Sydney Roosters have claimed another celebrity supporter after injured half Sam Walker played in the pro-am at the LIV event in Adelaide alongside golfing superstar Phil MIckelson.
Walker took the chance to present Mickelson with a Roosters jersey before the pair began their round at The Grange Golf Club.
Walker is currently recovering from major knee surgery but nothing was going to stop him teeing it up with one of the legends of the game.
Walker got off to a dodgy start with his opening drive but found his groove, with club legends Jake Friend and Mitch Aubusson offering their support.
PHINS EYE MORE UK BLOOD
Another Englishman is on the radar of NRL clubs. St Helens prop Matty Lees has played more than 160 games in the front row for the Super League giants and a handful of Test matches for England.
NRL clubs are now circling the 27-year-old as he eyes off a switch to the NRL alongside St Helens teammate Morgan Knowles.
It is understood Knowles has already agreed to join the Dolphins next season, making Lees a logical target for the southeast Queensland club as they look to beef up their front row.
Lees also played under Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf at St Helens and shapes as a ready-made recruit for the clubs that lose out in the Tom Hazelton sweepstakes.
Sport Confidential understands that talks with NRL clubs are in their furtive stages but Lees is off-contract at the end of the season and has a genuine interest in trying his hand in the NRL before he runs out of time.
He will have no shortage of suitors.
EAGLES SWOOP ON HOPPA
Manly have opened talks with teenage sensation Lehi Hopoate over an extension and upgrade that would catapult him into the club’s top 30 squad.
Hopoate was one of the finds of last season but remarkably remains on a development deal despite scoring nine tries in 14 games, capping his year by making his international debut for Tonga.
The Sea Eagles are keen to award him for his breakthrough season with an upgraded deal that would include at least one more year on his contract – his current deal expires at the end of next season.
Hopoate was rewarded for his year with the Ken Arthurson rising star award at Manly’s end-of-season celebration and his versatility makes him a valuable commodity, providing the Sea Eagles with an insurance policy for superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic.
GUTTED GRANT’S PAIN
Melbourne captain Harry Grant and his teammates put last year’s grand final to bed when they returned for the pre-season.
Queensland Origin star Grant watched a replay of the game on his own and then sat down with his teammates for a second look. It was painful, but necessary. A chance, in Grant’s eyes, to close the book on last season and learn from a painful defeat.
“I think you go through the game and you’ve got a feel of the game but watching it back you get a little bit of a different perception on some things,” Grant said.
“It’s obviously hard to watch, but you can also learn a little bit from Penrith in the way they went about their business and some of the good things that they did.
“I think they played a really good game and as much as it hurts you have to reflect to be able to move forward and sort of let go of it.”
Grant was fortunate in many respects – while many of his teammates drowned their sorrows on holidays, he was able to ease some of his grand final pain by playing for the Kangaroos.
“It’s more so just an opportunity to put it to bed and that way guys aren’t dwelling on it,” he said.
“A lot of guys haven’t played since that game, so I think that there’s definitely a lot of motivation and hunger there to really just get back into the playing footy knowing that the last game you played was that grand final.
“It’s in the past and we can’t change anything from it. We have to just learn from it and take it in our stride.”
NAS’ LATEST SETBACK
Melbourne have failed in a bid to have the Maori All Stars game included in Nelson Asofa-Solomona’s suspension stemming back to last year’s preliminary final.
Asofa-Solomona was suspended for five matches for a high tackle on Sydney Roosters forward Lindsay Collins in last year’s finals series, ruling him out of the grand final.
He was allowed to include three Tests for New Zealand in his ban but the Storm were unable to convince judiciary chair Geoff Bellew to include the All Stars game.
Asofa-Solomona would have been a certain selection but his history of missing the game came back to haunt him. Two years ago he was ruled out after a dog bite while he also missed the game during Covid due to his stance on vaccinations.
The decision left the NRL open to claims of inconsistency after Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr were able to include the All Stars game in their bans.
Crucially, their suspensions were for off-field incidents which meant the final call fell to NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo. As Asofa-Solomona’s suspension was related to an on-field incident, the final decision fell into the hands of the judiciary chairman.
The judiciary is an independent body and the NRL was powerless to intervene.
MUNSTER VS. HUGHES IN $10K BOOZE BAN BET
Reigning Dally M Medallist Jahrome Hughes and Melbourne teammate Cameron Munster have both agreed to a year-long booze ban ahead of the 2025 season, putting a massive $10,000 wager down for the disciplined winner.
The only catch is the sacrifices are hilariously unbalanced.
Munster, who has undergone a physical transformation as a result of a strict diet of red meat and organic fruits and vegetables, has agreed to give up alcohol for 2025 in pursuit of the NRL premiership and bettering his body after he battled painful hip injuries last season.
On the other hand, Hughes has agreed to cut down his beloved red wine intake, which he says is a part of his superstitious weekly performance preparation, to four glasses a week.
A glass of red or two worked for him last year, which was his best season in the NRL and earned him the Dally M Medal for player of the season.
The details of the bet were shared on their new weekly podcast One Six Seven along with teammate Ryan Papenhuyzen.
“Red wine is in my routine, and I don’t want to take that away and it makes me perform bad,” Hughes said.
“I pretty much just had red wine after a game (in 2024). but I’m changing that, I’m going to two glasses, twice a week. I’ll have it with dinner on a Tuesday on a something.”
Essentially, his end of the deal is no binge drinking on a night out, no beers and no vodkas.
Whereas Munster is locked in and disciplined with a zero alcohol policy.
“I want him to do whatever he needs to do,” he said of Hughes’s red wine exemption.
“If it means he plays like he did for us last year, he can do whatever.
“There’s a $10k wager on it.”
But it’s about more than the bet for Munster, who missed selection for the Kangaroos at the end of last season to undergo surgery on both hips.
He managed to play 17 games last season, including the grand final loss to Penrith, but wants to deliver Storm a premiership in 2025.
EX-NRL BOSS IN DRAGONS DEN
Another familiar name has emerged in the race to become the new chief executive of St George Illawarra.
The Dragons have kept their cards close to their chest when it comes to finding a replacement for departing CEO Ryan Webb, although Sport Confidential can reveal that former NRL chief executive Shane Mattiske’s name has been mentioned as a candidate.
Mattiske recently finished up as executive chairman of the Newcastle Jets and spent nine months at the helm of the NRL.
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