{"id":271609,"date":"2025-07-18T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/271609\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:51:12","slug":"wayne-bennetts-message-to-lewis-dodd-as-former-super-league-mans-nrl-future-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/271609\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett’s message to Lewis Dodd as former Super League man’s NRL future in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NRL\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The NRL future of former Super League man Lewis Dodd<\/a> has had more doubt cast over it after South Sydney Rabbitohs\u2019 latest decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Souths look set to sign injury-prone Cody Walker to a new deal beyond the current season with that being a clear message that they don\u2019t deem Dodd ready to step up.<\/p>\n

Walker is out for the rest of the year with a calf injury with the veteran half having only played eight times so far in 2025, however, the Bunnies look set to offer the 35-year-old a new deal.<\/p>\n

That comes just weeks after confirmation that they would take up the option on Jayden Sullivan\u2019s second year, whilst also signing St George Illawarra youngster Jonah Glover for 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All signs would point to Dodd remaining near the foot of the depth chart with the former St Helens man having only made three appearances so far in the NRL, all on account of injury to those ahead of him.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s set to make his fourth appearance on Friday after being named on the bench to face Penrith Panthers and Wayne Bennett has sent a message to him ahead of that clash.<\/p>\n

What Lewis Dodd needs to do in fourth NRL appearance to impress Wayne Bennett<\/p>\n

Having revealed the club\u2019s intent to re-sign Walker, Bennett explained why as he admitted that \u2018no-one can actually take his place\u2019, speaking to how irreplaceable he is.<\/p>\n

Per The Daily Telegraph<\/a>, Bennett said: \u201c(Walker) is going to do another year here, and you just hope that there are injuries where you can miss them or you can get him. We just take a risk there and hopefully we can get a lot more out of him going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo lose Cody Walker is a huge loss for our club, he is one the smartest guys playing league. You have to have someone there that can take his place, well no-one can actually take his place. It\u2019s that simple. We\u2019ve just got to persevere with it and stay at what we can do with what we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worrying that Dodd has been unable to string together a run of games despite the injuries to Walker and the fact that youngster Jamie Humphreys, Wests\u2019 exile Jayden Sullivan, and centre Jack Wighton have all played ahead of him.<\/p>\n

Souths insist that the $650,000 per year Englishman is part of their plans and Bennett spoke to media this week to explain what he wants from the former St Helens man.<\/p>\n

\u201cPut his body on the line,\u201d Bennett said in regards to the game against Penrith when talking about what he wanted to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a small guy and there are a lot of big players playing out there against him and you have to be committed to stopping them and taking them on with the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if he does that, I\u2019ll be pleased with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL future of former Super League man Lewis Dodd has had more doubt cast over it after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-271609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114873387287324736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}