Seibold up for a fight even with Benny out

BRISBANE coach Anthony Seibold is set to revive one of rugby league’s most bitter feuds – even if it isn’t against the arch rival he initially expected.

With South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett banned from attending Friday night’s game because of a COVID-19 breach, Seibold will instead reignite his highly publicised battle with the supercoach’s right hand man, Jason Demetriou.

It is now almost a year to the day since Demetriou, the Bunnies assistant coach, and Seibold found themselves involved in a wonderful war of words that created back-page headlines on both sides of the border.

As part of the stunning back-and-forth, Demetriou slammed the attacking style of Seibold and took aim at the way Souths played in 2018 when under his charge.

Seibold then hit back with some statistics critical of Demetriou, while also questioning if the long-time assistant – who has since been named to take charge at Redfern from 2022 – was himself “dirty” at having failed to land a top job.

The comments not only form part of an ongoing battle between the pair but also the larger personal feud between Seibold and Bennett – the two head coaches who effectively swapped places after the former quit Souths to take on the Broncos top job.

So even if Bennett watches the game from home on Friday night, the coaching feud remains – with both men undoubtedly keen to go “one up” on the other.

For those who need reminding, this rivalry kicked off last August when Seibold suggested of the Bunnies attack that “not a lot has changed” since Bennett arrived.

Demetriou then responded days later by taking a dig at Seibold, suggesting opposition teams had “worked his style out” when coaching the Bunnies in the 2018 finals series.