‘Self-destruct button’: Wayne Bennett blasts NRL over soap opera

South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett has taken aim at the NRL, saying the Daly Cherry-Evans saga has exposed a massive problem with the game.

Super coach Wayne Bennett has blasted the NRL over the Daly Cherry-Evans soap opera, calling for the game to introduce a trade window to avoid mid-season chaos brought on by shock player movements.

The Manly and Queensland skipper lit a furnace earlier this week when he announced he would leave Sydney’s northern beaches at season’s end after 15 years of service.

The Rabbitohs are well stocked for halves given the emergence of Jamie Humphreys and the signing of English import Lewis Dodd, and Bennett confirmed they were not in the running for the 36-year-old’s services.

“I’ve just enjoyed the entertainment that it’s just provided for everyone else in the game,” Bennett said of the saga that unfolded on live TV on Monday night.

South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett has unloaded on the NRL. Picture: Jeremy Piper

He branded the NRL’s trade rules, which allow teams to announce signings a season in advance and players to move mid-season, as “silliness”.

“It does nothing for the game, does nothing for the club and it’s wrong and I wish we’d fix it,” the master coach said a day out from his side’s showdown with premiers Penrith.

Bennett has long been a proponent for a trade window, similar to the AFL and other overseas sports, and said the NRL was lagging behind.

Daly Cherry-Evans will leave Manly at season’s end. Picture: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

“Aussie rules – this doesn’t happen in their game, they’re our major competitor,” he said.

“We’ve hit the self-destruct button four weeks into a football season which has already provided some great football.

“The whole focus is on what a couple of players have done … It just shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

Bennett was not critical of either Cherry-Evans or Manly but said the conjecture was a distraction for every club going through a similar situation.

“It doesn’t help, I can tell you that much,” Bennett said.

“Distractions don’t help.”