Revealed: Why supercoach Wayne Bennett will have a shock new look at the NRL's Magic Round footy festival
Eyebrows were raised last Friday night among members of the press after Wayne Bennett did not appear for his routine post-match press conference.
The Rabbitohs had suffered their fourth defeat of the season, going down by eight points against the Storm and members of the press were ready to gather in the media rooms at AAMI Park to quiz the South Sydney boss following the ANZAC Day clash.
Reporters were ready to quiz the super coach on everything from the team's performance to Latrell Mitchell's high tackle.
But in his place appeared the Bunnies' assistant boss, Ben Hornby, who shared the news that the Rabbitohs boss had lost a tooth.
'Wayne's tooth fell out, so he's not talking too clearly, so he's not talking real clearly, so he's let me have a go tonight,' Hornby said.
'Ask him to smile,' he joked before delving into the match.
It has now been revealed by The Courier Mail that Bennett, 75, had been chomping on a liquorice chocolate bullet prior to the match, with his tooth subsequently falling out.
The outlet reports that the Souths boss has made multiple trips to the dentist since the match.
The footy coach has reportedly had his tooth glued back in but it keeps falling out.
Bennett will be back at the helm for this weekend's Magic Round fixture against the Newcastle Knights, still without his tooth, with the footy great now booked in for an emergency dental procedure next week.
'I'm coming to Brisbane toothless,' he said laughing.
'I was eating one of those liquorice chocolate bullets before the game and my front tooth just snapped on me.
'I went to the dentist to get it glued back in, but I've had it fall out about three or four times now.
'I had to keep going back to the dentist so I thought stuff it, I'll just wait until next week to get it fixed.
The Rabbitohs were beaten by Melbourne Storm on ANZAC Day in what was their third loss on the bounce
'I was a bit embarrassed at first but now I'm getting used to looking at myself with a missing tooth.
'I'm getting it fixed next Tuesday.'
The Rabbitohs will be looking to bounce back this weekend having suffered three defeats on the bounce slumping to 11th in the table.
The Knights have also endured a torrid run of form at the start of 2025 having lost their last five matches including a 26-12 defeat against the Warriors in their last run out.
Reflecting on the Rabbitohs defeat to the Storm last week, Hornby revealed that changes to the squad have hampered them but that wasn't an excuse, with the side needing to front up.
'There was a lot of effort, the boys really tried hard, but the execution wasn't there, hasn't been for the last couple of weeks,' Hornby said.
'In some ways, it is an easy fix but when you're making the changes we are from week to week it's getting difficult.'
On swapping out players in the line-up he added: 'It's not ideal but we've persevered and done pretty well so far this year with the changes that we've had. We're not using that as an excuse but it does make it more difficult to build more cohesion. So that's where we're at.'
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