Panthers\u2019 double chance hopes slashed; inside contender\u2019s stunning freefall<\/a><\/p>\nWayne Bennett and Cody Walker.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Souths skipper Cody Walker admitted it would be a huge record to be a part of, which drew a hilarious response from his coach. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think so, we\u2019ll see what happens, see how they defend us,\u201d Walker said when asked if Johnston can get a hat-trick against the Roosters in Souths\u2019 final game of 2025. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s history making. Just to be a part of it, I couldn\u2019t imagine what he\u2019s going through. It\u2019s a record that\u2019s been around forever. And we\u2019re this close to breaking it, so I couldn\u2019t imagine what\u2019s gone through his head, but just to be a part of something like that would be very, very special.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could be on the bench, though,\u201d Bennett interjected. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll still run on,\u201d Walker shot back. <\/p>\n
AJ controversially closes in on record | 00:41<\/p>\n
Walker was impressive again off the bench in his second game back from injury and Bennett admitted Souths have missed his class and that of many of his teammates this year amid a horror casualty ward. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, there\u2019s about seven Cody\u2019s that aren\u2019t playing for us and when they come out, they do bring that excellence that they have,\u201d Bennett said. <\/p>\n
\u201cLatrell was the same two weeks ago at the Titans. That\u2019s why your top players make your club. <\/p>\n
Bunnies put Dragons to the sword | 01:47<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m really proud of the guys below that, that have put their hand up and taken a fair bit of responsibility with it and we have fought every game and we\u2019ve tried hard in every game. And tonight was just a reward for all they\u2019ve done.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bennett quipped he might have to actually make some tough selection calls for the final round against the Roosters. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I might have to make some decisions about team selection,\u201d Bennett said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t had to do that.<\/p>\n
Flanno: “Not tossing up any excuses!” | 03:54<\/p>\n
\u201cCody finished his normal way today where he came off early. He assures me that he is good. \u201cHe is used to coming off early now he doesn\u2019t want to stay to the end of games anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n
Souths could make it four straight wins to end the season if they beat the Roosters in Round 27, which drew another hilarious response from Bennett. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got four straight wins already, we\u2019ve got the bye next week.\u201d Bennett said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a bye a couple of months ago and they tried to take the points off us, but we\u2019re going better now, so they said we could have the points. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou had us winning the wooden spoon two weeks ago, so just give us a break. We\u2019ll see how we get to the game in two weeks and we can have the conversation after it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett was at his brilliant best in a cheeky press conference when discussing Alex Johnston\u2019s looming record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,63936,63933,63935,1653,12180,62847,36261,4603,42218,63934,5091,4746,761,762,673,158,677,668,63827,765,4583,4439,85,26110,670,52906,1651],"class_list":["post-85174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-become-one","tag-bennett-quipped","tag-cheeky-press-conference","tag-cody-walker","tag-dominant-display","tag-double-chance-hopes","tag-dragons-coach","tag-final-game","tag-hilarious-response","tag-horror-casualty-ward","tag-ken-irvine","tag-mark-st-john","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-press-conference","tag-ref-shockers","tag-run-home","tag-shane-flanagan","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports","tag-straight-wins","tag-sydney","tag-team-selection","tag-wayne-bennett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85174","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=85174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}