A week after being dumped by Brisbane, ex-Broncos assistant Jason Demetriou has reunited with Wayne Bennett as part of South Sydney's new-look support staff for 2019.
Demetriou has signed a three-year deal to again be Bennett's right-hand man, joining Willie Peters who has been promoted from development coach to Rabbitohs assistant.
The NRL club's former strength and conditioning boss Jarrod Wade is now South Sydney's head of performance under Bennett.
Demetriou's NRL career appeared in limbo when he was dumped last week by Brisbane the day former Rabbitohs mentor Anthony Seibold took over the Broncos reins.
Groomed by Bennett to replace the master coach at Red Hill, Demetriou was one of the high-profile victims of a month-long coach swap saga that embroiled South Sydney and Brisbane.
There was no room for Demetriou after Bennett was sacked by voice message and replaced by Seibold, who brought with him assistants Peter Gentle and Ben Cross, plus high performance manager Paul Devlin.
However, Bennett has welcomed Demetriou to Redfern as the replacement for Rabbitohs assistant David Furner who is now head coach of UK Super League heavyweights Leeds.
"We conducted an extensive search and interview process for our assistant coach role and Jason was the best candidate," Rabbitohs football manager Shane Richardson said.
"Jason is highly regarded as a coach in rugby league circles and comes highly recommended from coaching counterparts as well as many of the players he coached at Brisbane, North Queensland and St George Illawarra."
"We're delighted to have Jason, Willie and Jarrod on board, and we know they will give their all in support of Wayne and the team."
The future of Bennett's remaining former Broncos staff members - high-performance boss Jeremy Hickmans, analyst Scott Barker and sports scientist Tannath Scott - is unclear.
Australian Associated Press
