{"id":795256,"date":"2026-07-12T09:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795256\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T09:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T09:52:16","slug":"nrl-2026-wayne-bennett-explains-decision-to-drop-jye-gray-south-sydney-rabbitohs-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/795256\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Wayne Bennett explains decision to drop Jye Gray, South Sydney Rabbitohs press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wayne Bennett was pulling some of his best moves in the press conference following his side\u2019s frenetic 26-24 win over Newcastle<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Wins are usually cause for a lighter tone in the immediate aftermath of matches \u2013 and Bennett\u2019s 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\u2019s 31st birthday bash.<\/p>\n

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The master coach gave press his signature short, sharp observations between wry grins \u2013 and had journalists ready for anything post-match.<\/p>\n

Bennett was happy to praise Jye Gray\u2019s efforts in the performance after the diminutive fullback was slotted on the wing opposite one of the league\u2019s most prolific scorers in Newcastle\u2019s Dom Young.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got dealt a pretty bad hand today. The last thing he thought he\u2019d be playing when he was coming to this ground was on the wing for South Sydney,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo his credit he handled it great. I thought he would and I knew he would but it was the last thing we expected \u2013 a winger to be hurt so early in the game. He did a great job for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arrow’s half time birthday celebrations | 00:39<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew what we were doing. We made a deliberate decision to do that,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCody isn\u2019t playing today, Cody adds a lot to our team and he does things that other players can\u2019t do. Dufty can complement that and we needed him today to do those couple of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cJye has different skills, we just used Dufty\u2019s skillset today. There\u2019s nothing [negative] about Jye, we love him in the team and he showed today that he\u2019s prepared to play wherever we play him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response from Bennett prompted an obvious question: when Cody is brought back from suspension next week and presumably named in the Rabbitohs\u2019 starting line-up, will that force a reshuffle of Gray in place for Dufty at fullback?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to do that until Tuesday. I\u2019d never say \u2018I\u2019m not telling you\u2019,\u201d Wayne smiled, referring to the traditional naming of NRL teams on a Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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

Holbrook laments Knights poor start | 03:57<\/p>\n

Bennett said his side remained defiant despite the moving roster, and reaffirmed he was proud of their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots to like, we were very brave today. We won\u2019t 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\u2019t be more proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett and Rabbitohs\u2019 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\u2019 favourite sons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a magnificent crowd and generous. I just met the Wiggles in there, I\u2019ve listened to a lot of their songs for the children. Wanted to sing a couple to them but they weren\u2019t really interested in that,\u201d he joked,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sang him happy birthday in the change room at the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett was pulling some of his best moves in the press conference following his side\u2019s frenetic 26-24…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-795256","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\/795256","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=795256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}