Sam Burgess move shot down amid calls for Wayne Bennett to replace Jason Demetriou

South Sydney officials are reportedly reluctant to bring Sam Burgess back into the coaching fold at this stage, despite calls for him to work under Wayne Bennett at his former club next year. The Rabbitohs are said to be on the hunt for a new coach, with Jason Demetriou almost certain to be sacked amid the club's 1-4 start to the 2024 season.

The Rabbitohs have won just five of their last 20 games under Demetriou, who is reportedly set to be sacked regardless of the result against the Sharks this weekend. The Rabbitohs will most likely bring in a caretaker coach for the remainder of 2024, before appointing a full-time coach for next year.

Bennett has emerged as the leading candidate, with the master-coach officially a free agent in 2025. There have been calls for Burgess to work with Bennett as his assistant next year, before eventually taking over the head coaching role.

But a number of leading NRL journalists have shot down the prospect of Burgess coming back so soon, saying he's better off continuing to learn his craft at Warrington. Burgess walked out on the Rabbitohs at the end of the 2023 season after his pleas to Demetriou to be harder on the likes of Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker fell on deaf ears.

“With Sam Burgess, the powerbrokers at Souths are saying that no, Sam, you stay in England,” Dean Ritchie said on NRL 360 on Tuesday night. “You need, or he needs to do his apprenticeship. He’s only seven games into his (coaching) career. He needs a good two years at the moment.”

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Paul Kent pointed out that Burgess might not want to come back under the current hierarchy due to the fact they sided with Demetriou last year. “I don’t think Sam will come back,” Kent said. “I don’t think Sam will come and coach for the powerbrokers at the club at the moment. I think that’s the issue.

“I think that some of those people, the way they treated Sam last year, would need to be moved on for Sam to really entertain it. And that would be then a conversation probably between Sam and Russell Crowe.”

Who will be coaching South Sydney in 2025?

Brent Read added: “Sam doesn’t need to come back now though. If they get Wayne, Wayne can do it for three years and Sam comes back in the last year.”

Braith Anasta said the current board would need to admit they were wrong in telling Burgess to leave early. “It is a tricky one though because even if Sam does want to come back, it’s the same hierarchy there that told him to go,” Anasta said.

“Who didn’t support him? Now are they going to kind of swallow their pride and go, 'well, hang on, we stuffed up'. You’re saying they won’t. They don’t want him back now.”

Ritchie added: “They feel that he has to do his apprenticeship. That’s a fact. And there’s no spot right now in the NRL. He’s had seven games as a head coach. He cannot come back with that little experience and try to rectify a problem which is festering. I don’t think anyone’s looking at Sam as a head coach of that club next year, [but] it’s inevitable he will be back and it’s inevitable he will be head coach at South Sydney."