Demetriou spent 11 years playing in England for Widnes Vikings, Wakefield and then finally at Keighley Cougars, where he began his coaching career. He was the first Australian to captain a Super League club when he took on the role at Wakefield.
He coached at various clubs in Australia, including Lockyer’s old club Brisbane Broncos, before joining South Sydney.
Lockyer said they would be aiming to bring in players from Australia and New Zealand to work with Demetriou, as well as building a foundation of local players for the future.
“We’re talking with him about building our roster pretty quickly and we think between six and 10 players need to come in to make them competitive,” he said.
Lockyer added: “There’s a lot of people we have been meeting here over the past few days and they’ve been talking about the talent that there is in London.
“There’s a huge population so there’s bound to be some players who can do something really big in rugby league.
“If we get foundations set up right and get our pathways the way we want them then in the perfect world in 10-15 years time, if we’re still here, then we’d love to see most of the players coming from local areas.”