Limited-time offer ><\/a><\/p>\nDodd was signed for three years on a lucrative deal but has played just four games off the bench this season despite the Rabbitohs going through a horror injury run in 2025.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll finally start in the No.7 jersey against the Sharks with Jamie Humphreys in concussion protocols, with Bennett refusing to make any comments about Dodd\u2019s future before he sees how he performs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all going to be a lot smarter after tomorrow night, so let\u2019s wait until tomorrow night and answer some questions then,\u201d he said, with suggestions the club could try to move him on at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been good since he\u2019s been here. He\u2019s trained well, is well-mannered and has been highly respectful of the other players and his teammates. Nothing has changed for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be a big month for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Bennett didn\u2019t want to comment on Dodd\u2019s future, he was strong on Origin eligibility rules after it emerged that the Australian Rugby League Commission was considering making changes to stop players from having to choose between the Blues or Maroons and international sides England and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
As it stands, Origin stars like Stephen Crichton, Payne Haas and Jarome Luai can represent the Blues and then play for Samoa at the end of the year because of their tier 2 status.<\/p>\n
That loophole isn\u2019t available to guys like Victor Radley, who chose England over NSW, while there have been plenty of Kiwis who have been blocked from representing their state, while others have chosen to represent Tonga or Samoa so they can also play Origin. <\/p>\n
Bennett, who was in the mix to coach Australia in this year\u2019s Ashes series, has no issue with guys playing both formats but wants players to pick a country and stick with that choice for the rest of their careers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe they\u2019re going to play with the rules of Origin itself, and that\u2019s really important because the minute the fans realise it\u2019s not the genuine Queensland v NSW that it is, then we\u2019ll lose the fans,\u201d Bennett warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the great thing about it, the rivalry is real and it\u2019s not false, so we need to maintain that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe off side of that is players leaving that arena to then go and play for Tonga, Samoa, England, whatever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy for them to do that, but they can\u2019t do it as they\u2019re doing at the moment where you play for Tonga because they\u2019re second tier. If you play for England, it\u2019s first tier, so you can\u2019t swap nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy point with it is that Origin eligibility won\u2019t change, and after that if you want to play for England and you qualify for England, then you do that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy for that because it makes the international game stronger, but I just don\u2019t want to see them playing for England and then coming back to play for Tonga because they\u2019re a second-tier nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s served its purpose and it\u2019s time to move on from that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans would have loved to have seen Kiwis legend Benji Marshall play Origin, but he still wouldn\u2019t have been eligible even under the proposed changes given he moved to Australia after his 13th birthday.<\/p>\n
Regardless, he said he was never jealous given he\u2019s proud of his heritage. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always found it to be an Australian thing,\u201d the Wests Tigers coach said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought it was respectful to what it was that players from Australia played in that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were always fans growing up in New Zealand. There was NSW and Queensland, but there was no wanting to play for them. I always wanted to play for New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018We\u2019ll lose the fans\u2019: Bennett\u2019s solution to Origin debate as UK recruit prepares for $2m acid test<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett has weighed in on proposed changes to State of Origin eligibility while also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[16040,64,63,689,9421,3925,23419,8001,23420,23422,20856,1208,23421,2057,23425,2105,5097,23417,23428,23424,15499,4506,23418,23423,10186,761,762,1736,3583,158,677,13390,23427,85,6405,4546,23426,4534,1651,4515],"class_list":["post-23351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-arlc","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-benji-marshall","tag-blues","tag-changing-state","tag-concussion-protocols","tag-eligibility","tag-eligibility-debate","tag-eligibility-rules","tag-england","tag-english-recruit","tag-europe","tag-fiona-goodall","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-horror-injury-run","tag-international-game","tag-international-sides","tag-international-team","tag-kiwis","tag-lewis-dodd","tag-lucrative-deal","tag-maroons","tag-matchwinning-field-goal","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-zealand","tag-northern-europe","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-payne-haas","tag-second-tier-nation","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin","tag-stephen-crichton","tag-tomorrow-night","tag-victor-radley","tag-wayne-bennett","tag-wests-tigers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}