With Cyclone Alfred rapidly approaching, the NRL needed to make a call on this Friday's clash between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Dolphins.
While fans and players have shared their concerns and quarrels with the NRL's decision to relocate the game as opposed to cancelling it altogether, both sides' coaches commended the league's handling of this bizarre situation.
Rabbitohs' returning coach, Wayne Bennett, talked toย News Corp Australiaย about the relocation.
โThey have done the right thing. It's important to everyone involved in the game, the fans, the TV stations... we go back there, they are playing our home game there later in the year. I think it was a great decision.โ
Bennett, who has spent decades around the game, knows just how difficult it can be to please everyone.
โIf it had been called off, you find fault with us. If we put it on, you find fault with us,โ Bennett said of the criticism.
The former Dolphins coach also acknowledged concerns that the move would give his Sydney-based side the advantage, a notion he was quick to dismiss.
โI don't see any advantage to anybody. It all equals itself out.โ
Rookie Dolphins coach Kristian Woolf shared in his former mentor's optimism.
โI don't think there was another option, to be honest. I haven't seen anyone come up with a better option, and moving to byes when our byes don't match up with Souths and all those kinds of things just don't work,โ Woolf said.
Neither coach was willing to divulge Dolphins players pulling out of the match, with Woolf assuring each player has their own reasons for staying in Queensland.
โThree guys obviously chose to stay home, and they do that with my full support.
"I'm not going to go into each one, they're all personal conversations. But I certainly understand their predicament and why they haven't come away.โ
Both sides will face off tonight at Commbank Stadium, where Wayne Bennett will come up against his former club for the first time.
