Ex-Wakefield Trinity star reveals the “doubt” he suffered from being making massive move

A year ago, former Wakefield Trinity star and Keighley Cougars man Jason Demetriou took on a massive role as South Sydney Rabbitohs Head Coach replacing ex-England and Great Britain boss the legendary Wayne Bennett.

Now he is settled in the role but he has now he has revealed that he was full of doubt at the start of last season.

“With everything being new, there was a bit of doubt and that’s understandable,” he said to the NRL website.

“I had a little bit of doubt in myself, a little bit of doubt whether Lachie [Greece star Lachlan Ilias] could do the job, a bit of doubt over our new captain.

“Obviously losing some key players as well. But I feel like that doubt has gone now and we can start the season really confidently. You can feel that in pre-season at the moment… that’s probably been the most important thing.”

He went on to reveal the lessons he will try to learn going into 2023:

“One of the big focuses will be learning some lessons from last season’s prelim,” he said.

“Not the last five years [because] every year is different. Every squad is different. But I definitely feel like there are some good learnings to take from last year.

“The expectations are to turn up every week and be more consistent. I think that’s probably been our biggest problem and because of that we’ve rode the emotions quite high and low in the season.

“That takes its toll by the back end. A real focus for us is to get some consistency in our preparation and then also some consistency in our season. If we can do that, I think we’ll be in a good place come September.”