{"id":330672,"date":"2025-08-09T13:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330672\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T13:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:45:13","slug":"wayne-bennett-takes-cheap-shot-at-lewis-dodd-with-englishman-free-to-leave-south-sydney-rabbitohs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/330672\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett takes cheap shot at Lewis Dodd with Englishman free to leave South Sydney Rabbitohs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lewis\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

It\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s not worked out for Lewis Dodd in the NRL but South Sydney Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett has offered a cruel assessment of the Englishman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Signed on big money, reported to be $650,000 per season<\/a>, Lewis Dodd was announced just weeks before the sacking of Jason Demetriou and the confusion around the former St Helens\u2019 man has continued ever since.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s clear flaws in the South Sydney Rabbitohs system given they sanctioned a big money half-back signing whilst knowing that they were considering removing their head coach, with those flaws exacerbated when it became clear that their replacement head coach wanted little to do with Lewis Dodd.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s evident from the fact he has played just six games all year despite injury ravaging Souths\u2019 side. Even worse, the Englishman has played just 68 minutes in his preferred position of number seven.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s recently been confirmed by Wayne Bennett that Lewis Dodd is free to seek a deal elsewhere<\/a>, however, the Australian coach has now kicked Dodd even more with a cheap shot comment in his latest media appearance.<\/p>\n

Wayne Bennett gives brutal Lewis Dodd \u2018ability\u2019 verdict<\/p>\n

Former player turned pundit Braith Anasta labelled Dodd\u2019s signing as \u201cone of the greatest recruitment blunders in NRL history\u201d<\/a>, something that Bennett called a \u2018cheap shot\u2019 before then taking one of his own.<\/p>\n

Asked if the decision to let Lewis Dodd move on was based on his huge salary or poor form, he brutally responded<\/a>: \u201cIt might not even be his form, it might be his ability. You work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a low blow comment made from a very experienced head coach who has done nothing to aid Dodd\u2019s chances of making it, in respect to the fact he has been played out of position.<\/p>\n

The comment is even more insensitive when Bennett followed it up by noting: \u201cHe\u2019s in a tough place.\u00a0The harshest thing that can happen to a player is to be told you\u2019re not in first grade, when you think you should be a first-grader. I won\u2019t add to it. People can work it out for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for his thoughts on Anasta\u2019s comments, he hit back: \u201cEverybody has an opinion. It\u2019s that his opinion, that\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I do know is, with the exception of Penrith, who have won four in a row, everybody doesn\u2019t win a premiership every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do make mistakes, we do get things wrong, but we get a lot of things right. We don\u2019t get the praise when we get it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get it wrong, someone like Braith comes out, cheap shotting the decision made at the time \u2026 we won\u2019t always get it right. We move on, learn our lessons \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis Dodd will play New South Wales Cup for the Bunnies this season and likely the remainder of the season with suitors from the NRL and Super League expected to line up and see what sort of cut-price deal they can negotiate with Souths for the Englishman\u2019s services.<\/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":"It\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s not worked out for Lewis Dodd in the NRL but South Sydney Rabbitohs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-330672","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\/114999114736565071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330672","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=330672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}