Revealed: The new offer Rabbitohs will make Reynolds as he concedes ‘time will tell’
Source: Fox Sports
James Hooper
March 4, 2021 2:27pm
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become clearer this week when the Rabbitohs captain sits down for the latest round of negotiations with the Redfern club.
The Reynolds camp have so far baulked at South Sydney’s 12-month contract extension for 2022 – leaving the Bunnies in a stalemate with their skipper as the club prepares to start the new season as one of the NRL premiership heavyweights.
The Reynolds camp is entitled to play hardball given the champion No.7 is one of the most experienced halfbacks in the competition, played all 23 games last season and kicked goals at 85 per cent.
Fox Sports has been told the Rabbitohs are expected to make Reynolds a two-year offer with an option for a third season in the club’s favour.
The dollars haven’t even been discussed yet – which is where the negotiations will get pointed.
“I’m meeting with the club this week and we’ll know more from there,” Reynolds told Fox Sports at the NRL launch.
Asked could he see himself wearing the jumper of a rival NRL club, Reynolds said: “At the moment no, but time will tell”.
The Fox Sports Lab numbers highlight how Reynolds still clearly ranks among the most experienced and valued halfbacks in the NRL.
Last season, the South Sydney captain scored six tries, had 11 try-assists, 13 secondary assists and forced 20 line drops courtesy of his kicking game.
Over the course of the past four seasons, Reynolds has only missed eight NRL matches out of a possible 101; two in 2019, two in 2018 and three in 2017.
Then there’s his goal-kicking. If you had to have a player kicking for your life, you’d want Reynolds.
Last year he kicked at 85 per cent. In 206 NRL matches across a nine year career, he’s kicked at 83 per cent.
South Sydney claim the reason the club only wants to do a 12-month extension is because they got burned by the early retirements of champion players Sam Burgess and Greg Inglis.
The concept received support on the Fox League Showcase launch program on Monday when Cooper Cronk said he could understand the Rabbitohs position.
Reynolds, 30, disagrees and is expected to push for a two to three-year extension.
As for SuperCoach Wayne Bennett, he’s also due to finish up as head coach with South Sydney at the end of this season.
The Bunnies intend to try and convince Bennett to remain involved in the club in a mentoring style of capacity.
Reynolds agrees and wants to see the seven-time premiership-winner remain at Redfern.
“I’d love to. I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” Reynolds said.
“It’d be nice. He’s a great coach and he’s great for the game.
“It’d be sad to see him not coaching.
“I think he’ll still be involved in one way or another.
“He’s an important figure at the club. It’d be pretty silly to get rid of Wayne and lose his knowledge of the game.
“Obviously Jason Demetriou’s a great coach and got a lot of experience working under Wayne but it’d be still good to have the big fella there and bounce ideas off from time to time.”
After qualifying for three straight preliminary finals, plenty of experts are saying it’s this year or bust for the Bunnies.
Again, Reynolds disagrees about the premiership window closing.
“I wouldn’t say so. Our depth is greater than it has been the last couple of years,” Reynolds said.
“You need a lot of luck to win premierships and we haven’t had that luck with injuries and what not the last couple of years.”
But is there any scar tissue from finishing 80 minutes short of the grand final the last three seasons?
“Yes and no. For the players that were there it hurts,” the Souths no.7 said.
“But we’ve got a number of new players there now that have come in and are doing a great job keeping things fresh at training.
“It’s a new squad now. We look at the past and use it as a bit of hurt but obviously you’ve got to move forward too.”
South Sydney will launch the new season into orbit on March 11 when they meet premiers Melbourne at AAMI Park on March 11.
