NRL club’s training session bizarrely stopped by police
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 26: Cody Walker of the Rabbitohs scores a try and celebrates with team mates during the round three NRL match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters at Stadium Australia on March 26, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire RUGBY: MAR 26 NRL Rd3 - Rabbitohs v Roosters Icon210326027
Ex-Wakefield Trinity man Jason Demetriou is in charge of one of the biggest clubs on the planet at present in the shape of South Sydney Rabbitohs.
However, despite the size of the club, this did not stop police stopping a training session led by the former Keighley Cougars man at 1am.
Why were the Rabbitohs training at 1am, it is in fact a lovely idea from Demertiou.
They were at one of 12 destinations the Souths players visited at the start of the week as they completed a gruelling 28-kilometre trip, which started at Redfern Oval and finished 15 hours later at their new multi-million dollar training facility at Heffron Park.
Souths are set to move from their spiritual home at Redfern in the new year. Thus, Demetriou decided to make all the players carry memorabilia, much of it heavy and packed in boxes, while stopping to hear stories about the junior clubs in Rabbitohs’ heartland.
However, after police had had a tip off that around 50 men were set to form a picket line, police cars rushed to the scene and surrounded them.
“They thought we were protestors,” Souths coach Jason Demetriou tells the Sydney Morning Herald. “Because we weren’t dressed in our traditional colours, we weren’t easy to identify as an actual NRL club.”
The situation sorted itself out in the end and they continued their trek which ended at 9:30.