Wayne Bennett and Anthony Seibold appear set to kick off the biggest coaching upheaval in NRL history, with both Brisbane and South Sydney destined to land new mentors.
With Seibold long considered the favourite to succeed Bennett’s throne in Brisbane, several reports emerged on Thursday afternoon suggesting the Broncos veteran had agreed to join the Rabbitohs.
Both Seibold and Bennett are off contract at the end of 2019, and the bigger question now appears to be whether the two clubs will move their coaches on now or give them one more season with their respesctive teams.
Either outfit can claim to be the winner of the possible deals.
Bennett is one of the greatest coaches in NRL history, the only man to have won 500 games from the coach’s box with seven titles to his name.
The 68-year-old already has a close relationship with the Burgess brothers through his time with England, and will have all the resources he would require at the Rabbitohs.
Seibold is far less established, but Brisbane will see him as the man who can take their club forward in the long-term after being turned down by Craig Bellamy earlier this year.
He won the Dally M coach of the year in 2018, after taking the Rabbitohs from stragglers to NRL preliminary finalists in his first year in charge.
He also has relationships with a number of Broncos players through his time as both a Queensland State of Origin assistant and juniors coach.
It’s therefore widely believed he will beat out Michael Maguire, Jason Demetriou and Kevin Walters for the Broncos job, and reports suggest he has told the Rabbitohs he wants to pursue that avenue, in turn prompting them to pull their offer for an extension.
That will in turn trigger a number of movements at other clubs.
Maguire remains the front-runner to join the Wests Tigers, a move that’s likely to be announced well before he returns home from coaching New Zealand against England.
That would free up Ivan Cleary to be released to Penrith, another move that appears to remain a case of when and not if.
Manly also announced their new coach in Des Hasler earlier this week independent of the rest of the moves, but with concerns still surrounding their exit negotiations with former mentor Trent Barrett.
However NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said the coaching merry-go-round was a positive for the game and its fans.
“There is always conjecture about the leadership roles in our clubs,” Greenberg said at Thursday’s NRL’s draw announcement.
“Clearly there is a sweet spot here where there are a number of clubs looking at filling vacancies or voids of end-of-term contracts for coaches and I expect that will play out over the next month.
“I think the fans are probably enjoying sitting back and watching more rugby league content as we sit into the end of October and into November.”
