Wayne Bennett ‘hoodwinked’ amid South Sydney Rabbitohs’ ‘feral’ demise

The South Sydney Rabbitohs were meant to turn things around in 2025, instead Wayne Bennett has been sold a lemon in his return to the club.

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Season 2025 was meant to be a year of healing at South Sydney where everything was revived from its mojo all the way up to Latrell Mitchell’s widow-making thighs.

But after registering a fourth straight defeat, the foundation club is at risk of another season in the sump tray with the rest of the NRL’s sediment.

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There was no better opportunity for the Rabbitohs to get back on track than last weekend against the Knights, a team with an offense as incisive as slicing turkey with a door key.

But against a battling opposition that had seemingly quit on their coach, the Rabbitohs only response was “hold my beer”.

Producing a feckless 30-4 defeat not only saw Souths lose further touch with the top four, it was a capitulation that also raised questions about the playing group and whether it still gives a toss.

The Rabbitohs are stuck in NRL purgatory. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

With the club’s encouraging start to the season now a distant memory, not even a rousing victory for Anthony Albanese can convince otherwise of the cold hard facts:

Another season on the back bench beckons for this iconic club and there’s one victim of its demise that it reflects unfairly on most.

Wayne Bennett rejoined South Sydney on the proviso he was strolling back in to a stable organisation, not a feral menagerie.

Whether it’s the club’s disfigured salary cap, hapless conditioning program or even just the Lewis Dodd shambles, the Rabbitohs are in such disarray they’re making the legendary supercoach look like a damn chump.

Add the headache of Mitchell’s stop-start season and the 45 minute commute to Accor Stadium, and you wouldn’t blame him for re-enacting Danny Glover’s “I’m too old for this sh*t.”

Wayne’s getting too old for this. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Bennett’s presence usually guarantees plenty of tenacity and title talk, but it goes in to overdrive when he joins forces with a powerhouse like South Sydney.

Despite its self-appointed underdog tag, the Redfern clubs boasts enough rivers of gold to forego pokies and attract enough celebrities to warrant its own sidebar on the Daily Mail.

But despite a rich history and Snoop Dogg brandishing club merchandise on late night TV, the organisation has become such a ball-ache that everyone from Jai Arrow to Reggie Rabbit is losing their rag and even Bennett’s sparkling methods aren’t immune.

In fact, the joint’s been such a drag on the seven-time premiership winner that he can’t even get a tune out of Josh Schuster, the kinda troubled soul he’d usually inspire from the ottoman to Origin with a single side-mouthed mumble.

While the Rabbitohs will always covet the gravitas as the NRL’s grand old club, they only call it ‘grand’ these days because of the hundreds of thousands they’ve wasted on Temu recruitment deals and Elastoplast.

Things are bleak in South Sydney. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

The botched sacking of Jason Demetriou last year left a half-pregnant playing list, with Mitchell on big money to train the house down – but only because he’s suspended or returning from injury – and Jack Wighton on $850,000 to try hard in whichever position he’s best suited to, which recently has been whichever one keeps Dodd out of the team.

For all its scattergun recruitment it’s the Dodd decision that has proven South Sydney’s piece de resistance, a backfire that sees the club paying the St Helens playmaker $650,000 only to neglect him like a faulty Tamagotchi.

While Bennett must accept some responsibility for the state of the Bunnies, you can’t deny Dodd is like that album U2 force-fed on to our iPods, Wayne never asked for him and would happily do a factory reset just to wipe him from his list.

As for the rest of the playing group?

The club is in free fall on the ladder. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

There haven’t been promising signs for a long time. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

They say a team is a reflection of its coach, but Souths have taken this too far by assembling a squad with the muscle resistance of a 120 year old.

Starting with the disastrous injury in pre-season to dogged skipper Cam Murray, Souths have lost Jamie Humphreys, Mikaele Ravalawa, Cody Walker, Alex Johnston and Wighton, meaning Bennett’s only requirement for a debut is a set of boots and consciousness.

Admittedly, its difficult to lay blame on any one person for injuries as most come down to Lady Luck or Mad Monday, but such is the volume at Souths that it’s either their poor choice of tiger balm or somebody drove over a kitten on Heffron Park.

All-in-all, Souths sold Bennett the dream and instead hoodwinked him with a box of expensive porcelain and it’s leaving a rare blemish on his legacy.

And while there’s not much the supercoach can’t turn around – he’s transformed virtual labour-hire in to Maroons and even Blake Austin in to a Pom – the morass around the club this time might be beyond his masterly touch.

– Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic yearning for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges were magic and the Mondays were mad. He’s never strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Originally published as Wayne Bennett ‘hoodwinked’ amid South Sydney Rabbitohs’ ‘feral’ demise