Wayne Bennett was pulling some of his best moves in the press conference following his side’s frenetic 26-24 win over Newcastle on Sunday.

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Wins are usually cause for a lighter tone in the immediate aftermath of matches – and Bennett’s Bunnies had just pulled off a big one, holding off a fast-finishing Knights to walk away victors in a day of celebration as the game marked star Jai Arrow’s 31st birthday bash.

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The master coach gave press his signature short, sharp observations between wry grins – and had journalists ready for anything post-match.

Bennett was happy to praise Jye Gray’s efforts in the performance after the diminutive fullback was slotted on the wing opposite one of the league’s most prolific scorers in Newcastle’s Dom Young.

“He got dealt a pretty bad hand today. The last thing he thought he’d be playing when he was coming to this ground was on the wing for South Sydney,” said Bennett of Gray, who was originally listed as 20th man for the match but slotted into the wing after a knee cut sustained by starter Dayne Jennings.

“To his credit he handled it great. I thought he would and I knew he would but it was the last thing we expected – a winger to be hurt so early in the game. He did a great job for us.”

Arrow’s half time birthday celebrations | 00:39

The decision to originally rest Gray at fullback and parachute in Matt Dufty was a deliberate one around playing styles, according to Bennett. This was specifically due to the absence of Cody Walker, who sat out the game while serving a one-match suspension.

“We knew what we were doing. We made a deliberate decision to do that,” Bennett said.

“Cody isn’t playing today, Cody adds a lot to our team and he does things that other players can’t do. Dufty can complement that and we needed him today to do those couple of things.

“Jye has different skills, we just used Dufty’s skillset today. There’s nothing [negative] about Jye, we love him in the team and he showed today that he’s prepared to play wherever we play him.”

The response from Bennett prompted an obvious question: when Cody is brought back from suspension next week and presumably named in the Rabbitohs’ starting line-up, will that force a reshuffle of Gray in place for Dufty at fullback?

“I don’t have to do that until Tuesday. I’d never say ‘I’m not telling you’,” Wayne smiled, referring to the traditional naming of NRL teams on a Tuesday afternoon.

Souths were dealt a separate blow when Euan Aitken came from the field for an electrocardiogram (ECG) midway through the first half.

Holbrook laments Knights poor start | 03:57

Bennett said his side remained defiant despite the moving roster, and reaffirmed he was proud of their efforts.

“There’s lots to like, we were very brave today. We won’t have time to go through it all but if you look at our injuries today and things that happened on the field, and a couple of things before we even got on the field, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Bennett and Rabbitohs’ captain Cameron Murray were typically understated around the reception for former teammate Jai Arrow, though Bennett did agree it was nice to get a win for one of Souths’ favourite sons.

“It was a magnificent crowd and generous. I just met the Wiggles in there, I’ve listened to a lot of their songs for the children. Wanted to sing a couple to them but they weren’t really interested in that,” he joked,

“We sang him happy birthday in the change room at the end of the game.”