After a dramatic preparation, Jason Demetriou was all smiles after earning his first NRL win as South Sydney coach on Friday night.
In just over a year he will step into the role to replace Wayne Bennett, but after being thrust into the position unexpectedly he walked away from ANZ Stadium with a 100 per cent success rate.
Friday's comprehensive 28-10 win over the Broncos was the first of two games he will steer for the Rabbitohs while Bennett is in COVID-hold for breaking biosecurity guidelines.
But despite the frenzied preparation, Demetriou said he felt settled and organised.
"It was a crazy 24 hours, I went for a walk with my wife late yesterday afternoon just to clear my head a little bit and get my head around what was going to happen and how we were going to approach it," he said.
"But the week was pretty much done.
"Wayne and the staff had prepared the boys well so today was pretty easy.
"It was just about coming here and making sure the messages during the week were the messages the players got.
"I have always said if you are coaching on game day you haven't done your job during the week and the boys knew what their job was and they did it well."
However, a trip to Townsville to take on North Queensland will complicate plans for next week.
Bennett, not a notable technophobe, will do most of his work from the phone.
Although it won't be via FaceTime, as the players had hoped for after Friday's win.
According to Demetriou they settled for unanswered text messages to communicate with their head coach.
"I'm sure they'd be sending him texts, but Wayne and technology, it'd be a while before they get a response I imagine," he laughed.
Australian Associated Press
