Swapping of coaches in 2019 not on agenda

THEY will be in a room together today for the first time since their clubs became snared in rugby league’s great coaching stand- off and the main agenda item of the day is aimed at preventing it happening again.

But Broncos CEO Paul White and Rabbitohs CEO Blake Solly have had no discussions about swapping coaches Wayne Bennett and Anthony Seibold for the 2019 season and there are no plans for even informal talks when they attend a meeting in Sydney today of club bosses.

The momentum for a coach swap for 2019 between the clubs would most likely come from Souths and be most unlikely to start before Bennett returns to Australia, expected to be at the weekend.

Seibold’s claim on Monday that he wanted to know within 48 hours who will coach which club next year is a sign of frustration that has been exacerbated by media reports that Rabbitohs players are unhappy with him. Seibold contests such claims.

If Bennett does prove open to an immediate switch of clubs, it becomes a question of whether the two clubs can agree on a financial outcome.

Brisbane have planned for months around Bennett being in place as coach in 2019 and have added Andrew Croll as a new conditioner in a staff headed by Bennett. Croll worked at the Cowboys in their 2015 premiership campaign.

All 16 club chief executives will meet in Sydney with some clubs wanting to put in place a regulation for coaches that prevent them from signing with another club for more than 12 months out from the end of an existing contact.