Wayne Bennett denies injury carnage will ruin South Sydney Rabbitohs’ NRL finals hopes
Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett has shot down suggestions Souths’ injury crisis will destroy their season, unveiling a new captain and revealing positional changes are coming.
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Wayne Bennett has blasted suggestions Souths’ injury carnage will destroy their season and has backed Cody Walker as the stand-in skipper to engineer a Rabbitohs finals revival.
In his first interview since captain Cameron Murray and superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell were wiped out by injury, Bennett dismissed fears the twin big-name body blow will derail South Sydney’s planned fightback in 2025.
The Rabbitohs were plunged into crisis on the eve of the new season last week when Murray snapped his achilles and Mitchell strained his hamstring in 10 minutes of pre-season disaster for Bennett.
In the absence of Murray and Mitchell, Bennett will turn to the leadership of veteran five-eighth Walker.
Just turned 35, Walker is off-contract at season’s end, but Bennett scuppered retirement talk and believes the former NSW Origin playmaker can soldier on for an 11th season in 2026.
“Cody Walker will be our captain,” he said.
“I don’t see why he won’t go on next year.
“We’ll see what this year brings.
“He is at the stage of his career where it’s a year-by-year thing, but he is still a wonderful player.
“He’s an important part of what we do. I expect him to play in round 1.
“I know he can get the job done this year.”
Murray and Mitchell will miss Souths’ round 1 clash against Bennett’s former Dolphins club next Friday night, with Mitchell sidelined for up to two months, while the super coach concedes Murray may not play at all this season.
But Bennett says he is not hitting the panic button, vowing to hold his nerve in his second coming at Souths as the 75-year-old looks to return Souths to the finals following last year’s 16th-placed implosion under Jason Demetriou.
“It wasn’t a great week for me last week I must admit, but I’m accepting of it now,” Bennett said ahead of his return to Queensland for Souths’ opener against the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.
“I’m moving on, I can’t dwell on losing Cam and Latrell.
“It’s next man up now.
“I’ve spoken to Cam, he feels disappointed and so I am, but we have to get on with it now.
“It’s disappointing for Latrell because he was training well and I was really happy with how he was going.
“We have a lot of other players here who are going to get an opportunity in life. I’m not worried about our season.
“It’s just the next man up, that’s my formula.”
History shows NRL Hall of Fame coach Bennett has overcome injury and mid-season bombshells to keep his teams in premiership contention.
A decade ago, marquee Broncos recruit Darius Boyd, like Murray, snapped his achilles in pre-season, but returned in time to inspire Brisbane to the 2015 grand final in Bennett’s return to Red Hill.
In 1999, the Broncos won one of their first 10 games - prompting halfback legend Allan Langer to sensationally quit the NRL - but Bennett stabilised Brisbane to deliver a top-eight berth.
With Mitchell due to return well before the start of the Origin series, Bennett is confident the Rabbitohs have the forward depth to stay in touch with the finals aspirants.
“Look, it’s hard to talk about whether we can make the top eight,” he said.
“The finals are a long way away. We just have to get out there and play some good football and the rest will take care of itself.
“If it’s six months out for Cam (Murray), that’s what we have to deal with and that might take us until August. The playoffs start in September so we have to be in the top eight still.
“Cameron is a pretty remarkable athlete and he will do his absolute best to get back, but I’m looking at it like he probably won’t play again this year.
“If he does, it would be wonderful, but I don’t know if he will be back this year.
“I can’t write him off totally. Cam wasn’t meant to start the season with a hand injury, but he worked really hard on it and he was going to start the season.
“Darius Boyd snapped his achilles when I was at the Broncos. He was a great athlete and a great trainer and he got back in five months and we made the grand final.
“Cam might come back earlier as well.”
SELECTION PUZZLE
Bennett said he is exploring several positional permutations. Jai Arrow shapes as the ideal replacement for Murray, but the Queensland Origin ironman is set to start round 1 in the back row pending the return of Euan Aitken from injury.
That opens the door for promising forward Tallis Duncan and Bennett’s Dolphins recruit Lachlan Hubner to cover the Murray crisis.
“I’m weighing up a few options,” Bennett said.
“Tallis Duncan is one guy I’m looking at, there’s Lachy Hubner and Jai Arrow as well.
“It depends on the structure of our team and when we got Euan Aitken back as well.
“If Aitken comes back, that will free up Jai to play in the middle.
“Jai would be a great option to replace Cam, but right now we need to play on the edge because Euan will miss the first three or four weeks of the season.
“Duncan is a good young man on the way up. He is like Cam Murray in terms of size, he’s not a big guy but he does a great job and we’ve just signed him to a new deal.
“The only good thing to come out of this is we have time now to recover from it.
“It’s better for it to happen now, rather than in three or four months’ time, because at least we can get someone in that position and they can own that position and know they will be there for a long period of time.
“Sometimes you get a major injury late in the season and you don’t have time for the replacement to feel comfortable in that position.”
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