Rabbitohs getting to grips with Wayne Bennett’s sense of humour

Is it Braidon Burns or Jayden? Jack Knight or Liam? As well as adapting to a new style, players at South Sydney are also having to get to grips with Wayne Bennett’s sense of humour.

The Rabbitohs aren’t sure what to make of Bennett’s jokes. Image: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

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Is new South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett playing mind games or is he a dad joke connoisseur?

Rabbitohs outside back Braidon Burns told The Daily Telegraph that Bennett struggled to remember the names of his players when he first arrived at Redfern.

But he and his teammates can’t figure out whether his new coach is in on the joke.

“Wayne often gets some of the boys’ names wrong. I don’t know whether it’s deliberate or not. He tries to make out it’s deliberate. He’s got a couple of the boys names wrong now,” Burns said with a laugh.

Braidon Burns has to earn his name, it seems. Image: Tim Hunter.

Take this recent video review session, for example.

“There was this meeting I was in, he put one of the videos up from the Charity Shield game and I’d done something wrong and he’s written ‘Jayden’ on the clip and everyone was looking around trying to figure out who the video was about,” he said.

The spray directed at ‘Jayden’ had players perplexed, as far as they knew not a single person in the room had that name.

“At the end of the video Wayne sort of laughed and said ‘I’ll call him Braidon when he gets it right’,” Burns said.

The Rabbitohs aren’t sure what to make of Bennett’s jokes. Image: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

But it wasn’t the only time a Bennett left players scratching their heads.

“He’s pretty funny like that and all the boys get a laugh out of it. When he first arrived he called Liam Knight ‘Jack’,” Burns said.

“He’s looking at Liam and referring to him as Jack and Liam is sitting there looking behind him and trying to figure out if he was talking to him or someone else.

“Nobody knows if he’s being serious or not.”

Originally published as Rabbitohs getting to grips with Wayne Bennett’s sense of humour