South Sydney Rabbitohs head coach Wayne Bennett has revealed there were never any guarantees for prop Matt Lodge to be signed by the club.
Lodge last week was confirmed to be on a part time deal with the Sea Eagles for the 2025 season, having previously turned down a two-year fulltime contract offer with the club.
At the time, he said he simply wouldn't sign with the Sea Eagles on a minimum wage contract while putting his body through the rigours of being a starting NRL prop.
He was then linked with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, but that deal fell over despite being reported as all but over the line, before he was finally linked with the St George Illawarra Dragons and that fell through too.
In the end, Lodge elected to remain at Manly on a part time deal where he will also work part time, saying the move to the Dragons wasn't feasible for his young family.
Lodge said he thought the move to South Sydney was all but over the line when speaking during the week, but Bennett, speaking to Code Sports, said there was never a guarantee of Lodge turning out for his team, putting it down to salary cap issues.
โLook, I never guaranteed that Matt would be here,โ Bennett told the publication.
โUnless you sign the contract, the deal isn't done.
โCertainly, I was highly interested in him and at one stage we were close to approaching him with a deal or offering him a deal. But we never talked money.
โWe never got to that place. He had a few things going on as well.
โA couple of guys we were trying to move on didn't move. I'm not disappointed those guys are still here, but they are here and that made it more difficult under the salary cap
โWe just decided we would stick with what we've got."
South Sydney, who faced horror injury issues throughout 2024, will have Tevita Tatola back on the park in 2025, who will likely be joined by either Sean Keppie or Davvy Moale in the starting front row.
Manly, on the other hand, will be able to call on Lodge as a back up middle third option anytime from Round 11 under NRL rules, given he isn't part of either the NRL top 30 or development squads.
He will, in the meantime, turn out for Manly's reserve grade team.
