On Tuesday, Jason Demetriou was sacked from his role as head coach of South Sydney Rabbitohs.
The Rabbitohs have had a terrible start to 2024, sitting rock bottom of the NRL table.
They’ve also won just five of their last 20 games, despite playing in the Grand Final just three years ago, and being Premiership favourites half-way through last season.
Assistant coaches Sam Burgess and John Morris both left the club during this turgid time, showing that Demetriou also didn’t have much support from within his coaching team.
Another club that has recently sacked its head coach is Hull FC, who parted ways with Tony Smith last month, paving the way for Simon Grix to take over as interim head coach.
They’ve also suffered a similarly poor start to 2024, with just one victory all season, coming against bottom side London Broncos, whom they only managed to defeat thanks to a last-minute try.
Could Jason Demetriou take the Hull FC job?
Credit: Imago Images
With Richie Myler, Tom Briscoe and Ed Chamberlain coming in, Tony Smith, Nu Brown and Tex Hoy heading out, there’s plenty of change at the MKM Stadium at the moment.
Although Adam Pearson hasn’t always got things right, he clearly knows that somewhat of a ‘factory reset’ is needed, and may be willing to take big risks; larger than usual.
Demeteriou would absolutely be a a risk: his only major-league head coach role ended with devastating failure.
However, he’s got plenty of experience in NRL, being assistant at North Queensland Cowboys, St. George Illawarra Dragons and Brisbane Broncos before his assistant and head coach roles with the Rabbitohs, one of the biggest clubs in the world.
He’s also no stranger to the British game, being both a player and head coach for Keighley Cougars from 2011 to 2012, and before that, playing in England for over a decade, with clubs including Widnes Vikings and Wakefield Trinity.
It’s easy to point to his recent failures in South Sydney, but he’s also had plenty of success.
He won back-to-back minor Premierships and a Grand Final as head coach with Northern Pride, he was a coach for the Cowboys’ NRL Grand Final victory in 2015, he won the NSW Cup Grand FInal with the Illawarra Cutters in 2016 and also impressed as attacking coach at Brisbane Broncos.
It was also going swimmingly for much of last year, with the Souths second in the table before their terrible run at the end of the campaign.
This may not be a bad appointment at all – if Demetriou can capture whatever it was that brought him so much success previously, this could be a match made in heaven.
