Lewis Dodd move to South Sydney unaffected by Jason Demetriou sacking
Lewis Dodd of St Helens
South Sydney Rabbitohs’ sacking of Jason Demetriou has not altered their plans to land St Helens scrum-half Lewis Dodd.
The Rabbitohs parted company with Demetriou on Tuesday, just days after reports had emerged that they were on the brink of striking a deal to sign Dodd on a bumper long-term deal from the beginning of next season.
But the identity of the club’s next head coach will not impact whether or not Dodd joins the Bunnies in 2025, their CEO, Blake Solly, confirmed at a media conference on Wednesday.
He admitted they were ‘close’ to striking a deal for the St Helens player, with the club’s football manager, Mark Ellison, currently in England to finalise the deal and to scout for further options for Souths’ squad in 2025.
And Solly said: “First of all, we haven’t quite signed Lewis yet. We’re close and we’re hopeful, but I think that over time at this club, we’ve been strong in that the coach has an influence in recruitment and retention, but they don’t have the final say.
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“Between Mark, myself and the head coach and Peter (Legg), our CFO, we sit down together and work out which player we want to target. The head coach will be signed after we’ve signed Lewis and if they’re not comfortable with Lewis, if we do get him, they probably shouldn’t be the head coach.”
Solly was asked about potential candidates to succeed Demetriou – and effectively ruled out a move for Warrington head coach Sam Burgess.
“I don’t really know what Sam’s plans are,” he said.
“Sam I think has a two-year contract at Warrington and we’ve built up a lot of respect for Simon (Moran), Stuart (Middleton), Karl (Fitzpatrick) and the group over at Warrington so we wouldn’t want to disrupt that.
“My view is that this is Sam’s opportunity to show the world that he can coach and we wish him every success with that.”