Matt Dufty ‘let himself go’ at Warrington as brutal reason on exit given

Former Warrington Wolves fullback Matt Dufty has revealed why he left the club last year: insisting he ‘let himself go’ during the final stint of his time in Super League.

Dufty is excelling back in the NRL in 2026. He initially signed a short-term train and trial deal with South Sydney Rabbitohs and played in the New South Wales Cup but he was brought into Wayne Bennett’s team in April.

Since then, he has gone on to play 11 matches for the Rabbitohs, scoring twice. He will once again line up at fullback for the Bunnies this weekend when they take on Canterbury.

But Dufty has now shone a light for the first time on his release from the Wire.

Dufty ‘let himself go’ at Warrington

Speaking on the Freddy and the Eighth show with Brad Fittler, Dufty admitted that he agreed a mutual release with Warrington a year earlier than expected for a brutal reason.

That reason? “I let myself go too much there,” he said.

“Football is big over there but you don’t get in trouble for not being as professional as you should be. Obviously me and Sam Burgess are great mates, and it was a hard chat for both of us when we decided to part ways.”

That would appear to be a tactful admission from Dufty that the reasons why Burgess decided to exile from the team in the latter stages of 2025 had merit.

Dufty would return to Australia in January after Warrington and the fullback came to terms on his exit, before his remarkable renaissance in the NRL this year with South Sydney.

Dufty sheds light on Bennett talks

However, Dufty was unable to sign with South Sydney before being given the green light by Wayne Bennett – which meant a nerve-wracking conversation with the legendary coach.

Bennett did not want to know about his career – he instead wanted to know why the fullback had suddenly left Warrington amidst speculation of him being dropped in the latter part of 2025 for non-performance reasons.

Dufty said: “He (Souths assistant Ben Hornby) had a chat to Wayne and Wayne was keen. He said give him a call in the morning and I was really nervous – I’ve never spoken to Wayne Bennett before! I was sweating, I was up all day! I called him and he didn’t really care [about rugby], he was just asking me why I’d left Warrington, he wanted to know why they let me go.

“He was like, I know you can play football but what are you like as a person? Are you going to bring something, what are you going to bring to the team? We had that honest conversation.. there was no footy talk, he asked why I was leaving Warrington. It was a bit confronting because I had to ask myself those questions while we were on the phone and answer him as truthdfu.ly as I could.”

But Dufty denied any suggestion of a rift with Burgess after leaving the club. He said: “I’ve still got a great relationship with him. When I left I think it was blown out [of proportion] a bit.”

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