{"id":537906,"date":"2026-03-13T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537906\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:09:10","slug":"wayne-bennett-press-conference-after-alex-johnston-makes-history-video-reaction-south-sydney-rabbitohs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/537906\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett press conference after Alex Johnston makes history, video, reaction, South Sydney Rabbitohs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wayne Bennett didn\u2019t give too much to reporters in a press conference that was everything you would expect from the Rabbitohs head coach after Alex Johnston\u2019s special night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Johnston revealed a touching message from Bennett to Fox League post-game<\/a>, the South Sydney coach \u2014 at least in public \u2014 wasn\u2019t in much of a mood to dwell on the moment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have said a fair bit about it,\u201d Bennett replied when asked off the top to speak to his emotions after Johnston, who he had played such a big role in coaching, became the NRL\u2019s all-time top try-scorer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I hate repeating myself. Let\u2019s move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was clear given the gravity of the moment that everyone else in the room wasn\u2019t prepared to do just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cMove on?\u201d the journalist replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I was at a press conference yesterday and we got asked a thousand questions about him which I answered,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know how special it is, we all know how special he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the fans not listening to his message against running onto the field, Wayne hilariously replied: \u201cNo, they didn\u2019t. It sounds like my players\u201d.<\/p>\n

The press conference then continued as expected as Fox League\u2019s Lara Pitt asked Bennett what it looked like from the coach\u2019s box seeing everything unfold. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Bennett replied. \u201cThe try?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of it,\u201d was Pitt\u2019s answer, to which Bennett called it \u201cpretty disruptive\u201d.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FEATURE: Inside Alex Johnston\u2019s incredible path to NRL history<\/a><\/p>\n

“I knew it was about to kick off!” | 04:12<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were out there trying to win a game of football. We were all out there trying our hearts out and all of a sudden it stops and breaks all the momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had to happen. It was how it happened after that we had no control over but the point is that I\u2019ve coached nearly a thousand games and that hasn\u2019t happened before… but it\u2019s a pretty special time so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bennett\u2019s defence, he was asked plenty about the milestone and Johnston as a player and person earlier in the week, including what has made him such a prolific try-scorer.<\/p>\n

“That’s the try we’re watching forever!” | 13:04<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Ken Irvine, he\u2019s pretty similar to him,\u201d Bennett said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not big guys\u2026 they just get there with skill and guile and great anticipation and a feel for the game. Some of the tries that Alex has scored, if you put other wingers in that position, they wouldn\u2019t score those tries because they just don\u2019t have the feel that he has to come onto the ball\u2026 and then get himself into the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett didn\u2019t give too much to reporters in a press conference that was everything you would expect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-537906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537906","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=537906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}