Damien Cook reveals Bennett's quirky trait

Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues hooker Damien Cook is thriving under Wayne Bennett at Redfern but it's a quirky trait from the new South Sydney coach that has really caught his attention. "Wayne's a pretty funny old bloke, quick-witted," Cook told. "Doesn't shake hands really, you only get one hand shake a week. "I always try and sneak another one in there but he always remembers whose hand he shakes."
Big Sports Breakfast hosts Terry Kennedy and Laurie Daley laughed in agreeance with Cook. Kennedy has experienced the same rejection himself in the past while Daley revealed his strategy was to leave his hand out until Bennett shook it. "I can play with my forwards a little more through the middle," Cook said. "He (Bennett) wants me to keep my style of play and wants to add a few things, take pressure off the halves, control in the middle a bit more and controlling the game."

Inglis to retire from NRL at end of 2020

The last of Queensland's golden generation is set to walk off into the sunset with Greg Inglis announcing he will retire from the NRL at the end of 2020 and 2019 will be his final year of representative football. The South Sydney skipper on Friday put an end date on his illustrious career that has included 261 NRL games, three premierships, five grand finals,
39 Tests for Australia and 32 Origins for Queensland. Inglis began his career with the Storm but was forced out at the end of 2010 following the club's salary cap scandal. A move to the Rabbitohs, and a shift to fullback, solidified his legacy after he played a leading part in their drought-breaking premiership in 2014. He flagged the possibility of moving into coaching post-retirement and said he was committed to capitalising on the club's premiership window under new coach Wayne Bennett over the next two seasons.

Greg Inglis escapes conviction for drink driving

NRL star Greg Inglis has escaped conviction for speeding and drinking driving after a magistrate noted his “significant” contribution to the community off the field. The South Sydney Rabbitohs captain was told he was free to go as long as he adhered to an 18-month good behavior bond. Outside court a subdued Inglis, 32, gave a short statement.
Inglis was stripped of the Australian captaincy after he was clocked at 99km/h in an 80 zone of the Great Western Highway at Lithgow before he returned a reading of 0.085. His lawyer, James Jordan, told the court he had been celebrating that achievement with friends and family the night before. But he said he stopped drinking and went to bed shortly after midnight and waited until 11 the next day to begin the drive back to Sydney.

Corey Allan to pinch Rabbitohs No.1 jumper

Alex Johnston has been the Rabbitohs’ fullback for the past two seasons, except for two months of footy in 2017 when Cody Walker was shifted to the custodian role. Now he’s got a real challenge on his hands to retain the No.1 jumper, with highly-rated Brisbane product Corey Allan making the move to Redfern. So exciting is the Logan Brothers
junior, that he was the first player ever selected in the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII side without having played an NRL game. He’s been a mainstay in Queensland junior rep sides, and played alongside Rabbitohs young gun Cameron Murray for the junior Kangaroos in 2017. Wayne Bennett is acutely aware of what the 20-year-old has to offer, and Johnston has far from been assured of his role at Redfern since the coach swap began.

Burgess’s shock split with wife

NRL icon Sam Burgess has split up with wife Phoebe less than a month after the pair welcomed their second child into the world, according to a report. The South Sydney Rabbitohs star and his partner were married three years ago
but according to The Daily Telegraph have told family and close friends their relationship is over. The Telegraph reports the high profile star and his wife agreed to end their marriage last month. Daughter Poppy is nearly two years old and earlier this month the couple celebrated the arrival of a son named William.

Rabbitohs: 2019 Round 1 predicted team

South Sydney Rabbitohs: 2019 Round 1 predicted team: Alex Johnston, Campbell Graham, Greg Inglis, Dane Gagai, Braidon Burns/Robert Jennings, Cody Walker, Adam Reynolds, George Burgess, Damien Cook, Thomas Burgess, John Sutton, Cameron Murray, Sam Burgess, Dean Britt, Kurt Dillon, Tevita Tatola, Adam Doueihi   

Quote of the year

"I was happy to be sacked. I’ll just leave it at that, I was happy." Wayne Bennett after finally being let go by Brisbane to join South Sydney. Newcastle coach Nathan Brown on Bennett, a comment which he later regretted: "The reality is when Wayne came to town, if he thought with his big head rather than his little head, I wouldn’t have had to rebuild the joint." We’ve contacted your family members because they have been targeted as well. Don’t leave the hotel. We’ve picked up hundreds and hundreds of messages and they are death threats." Referee Matt Cecchin tells Herald colleague Andrew Webster about the phone call he got from police  after the controversial World Cup semi-final between Tonga and England.

Michael Maguire spoke out after Robbie Farah revealed he was ready to quit the Tigers

Wests Tigers and Kiwis coach Michael Maguire has moved to quickly to shoot down speculation Robbie Farah will retire and knows the club legend will play a huge role on the field in 2019.The Tigers also have the option to ask the NRL for their AU$639,000 (NZ$671,000) cap penalty to be spread over four years – the duration of Farah's planned ambassadorial role – which would still allow them to go to market for a couple of quality players next year.There is no chance any Tigers players will be shed if the current cap penalty remains. At the very least the club can promote two players from its lower
grades.Ironically, the Tigers are only capable of surviving the latest penalty because their cap is in such good shape with no heavily back-ended deals, which banned chief executive Justin Pascoe worked hard to clean up during the past three years. Farah was in good spirits as the club trained at Lidcombe Oval on Friday morning, despite expressing his disappointment at being dragged into the club's latest mess.A day earlier Farah was digesting the club's heavy reprimand for failing to disclose his ambassadorial role, and said: "I am at the point now where I'm thinking about walking away. I don't want to play."Maguire has always been a huge fan of the experienced No 9 and expects the Tigers' favourite son to play on."I've known Robbie for a long time, and the maturity and leadership he shows now will help take this club forward," Maguire said.

Bennett pulls off first Souths win as Cook re-signs

Wayne Bennett has already pulled off a win for South Sydney, with NSW hooker Damien Cook agreeing to stay at the Rabbitohs until the end of the 2023 NRL season. Already under contract for 2019, Cook, 27, has re-signed for another four seasons in a deal reportedly worth $4.5 million. Former Brisbane mentor Bennett said re-signing Cook was a priority when he arrived to start his three-year Rabbitohs stint on Tuesday.

And Bennett didn't waste time getting his man, with the Rabbitohs securing Cook on a lucrative long-term deal that is believed to include an upgraded 2019 contract. "I'm very excited to be extending my contract with the Rabbitohs and I'm happy to have my future sorted," Cook said in a statement. "Souths has been my home for the past three years and I didn't think it would be possible to be able to secure things for the next five years, but I'm so happy that that will be the case. "I've loved every moment of my time here, even the tough times, and I think we're building to something nicely."

Bennett's blunt call: 'Inglis is not my first choice'

Hold the phone, Greg Inglis isn't a lock for the South Sydney fullback role next NRL season. So says new coach Wayne Bennett, who denies promising the Rabbitohs' superstar skipper the No.1 jumper in 2019 ahead of young gun Alex Johnston. Bennett insists not only is he confident that Johnston will honour the final year of his contract amid rumours he wants a shot at a fullback elsewhere, but that Johnston is also in the running for the custodian role.

"No, (Inglis) is not my first choice as fullback," Bennett said after overseeing his first Rabbitohs training session on Tuesday after his dramatic weekend sacking from Brisbane. "We'll talk to 'GI' about where he wants to play and where he thinks the team will benefit the most from his position. "He's been one of the great players in our game. When it's all added up - history and Immortals and everything else - he's going to be right up there amongst them all. "So I don't like telling those guys where they have to play. I want them, when they've given so much, to be happy where they're playing.

South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL 2019 Draw

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are pleased to announce that the NRL Telstra Premiership 2019 draw has been released. Across 25 Rounds of Rugby League, Members and supporters of mighty Red and Green will get to experience their beloved Club in a number of different settings. The Club is very pleased with the layout of the draw and cannot wait for the new season to begin, especially with such a bumper start.

Kicking off on Friday 15 March, the Red and Green's 2019 campaign will get underway against arch-rivals the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It will be the first time since 2016 that both the Rabbitohs and the Roosters have clashed in Round 1 and the first time since 1993 the two have battled it out at the hallowed turf of the SCG. Club CCO and former Rabbitohs player Shannon Donato is extremely pleased with the draw and is very happy that the two old foes will get the opportunity to play each other in Round 1.