Jason Demetriou's admission about Wayne Bennett ahead of NRL showdown
The master coach and his former apprentice go head-to-head for the first time in round 7 of the NRL.
South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou has heaped praise on former mentor Wayne Bennett, ahead of his first showdown in the NRL against the 73-year-old. Demetriou's Bunnies come up against Bennett's Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night in a master versus apprentice scenario for the rival coaches.
Demetriou cut his cloth under Bennett at both the Brisbane Broncos and South Sydney, with the pair guiding the Rabbitohs into the grand final in 2021. Bennett then left Demetriou to assume the head coaching reins when he agreed to become the inaugural coach of the NRL's newest team.
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The master coach has the Dolphins flying so far in 2023, with the newcomers sitting in fourth on the ladder ahead of Thursday night's visit of the 10th-placed Rabbitohs. While the clash between the two former coaching comrades adds another element of intrigue to the game, Demetriou has had nothing but positive things to say about his former mentor.
"I'm not here without him, that's for sure," Demetriou told reporters about the influence of Bennett on his own career. "The first conversation was (Bennett saying), 'I like people who are self-made and you're who I want to act and think as a head coach'. He's been one of the best mentors I could hope for."
Demetriou says among the many lessons he learnt from Bennett was an ability to handle the burning spotlight of media scrutiny and how to stay calm under pressure. "In the dark times, he stays composed (and) he trusts what his values are," Demetriou added.
"I remember (Souths suffered) two 50-point losses in 2021 in the space of three or four weeks. We could have pushed a panic button, but we didn't. He came in and made it fun and got the players excited to play again, and we went on the run to the grand final."
Wayne Bennett a master in man-management
While Bennett has often had a prickly relationship with the media and frequently comes across as cranky or uninterested during press conferences, the coach's relationship with his players has been one of the hallmarks of a glittering coaching career. Demetriou says the veteran mentor's man-management skills have helped him consistently get the best out of his players.
"He's got an ability to make you feel good about yourself and that's the art of coaching," Demetriou added. "It's about your players having trust in themselves and you. Everybody talks about the younger generation but Wayne still manages to connect with the younger generation, he's an icon of the game."
Demetriou followed Bennett to Redfern at the start of 2019 where a succession plan was put in place that would allow the apprentice to eventually replace his master. One of the knocks on Bennett's legacy has been that when he has left, clubs have typically fallen apart.
However, the smooth transition from Bennett to Demetriou allowed Souths to hit the ground running last year, with the Bunnies reaching the preliminary final before losing to eventual premiers Penrith. Ahead of Thursday night's first meeting between the pair, Bennett suggested the Broncos made a mistake by not following a similar succession plan when he was head coach and Demetriou was his assistant at Brisbane.
"I took the idea (of a succession plan) with me, I realised I was running out of time coaching-wise," Bennett said. "That was the plan we had for the Broncos but they didn't want to buy into that.
"Jason could have been coaching the Broncos but it wasn't what they wanted to do. Souths were keen to do something like that, so Jason came to Sydney."
with AAP
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