Australian Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga has confirmed he isn’t going to the South Sydney Rabbitohs to take over from the underfire Jason Demetriou anytime soon.
The NRL world was turned upside down two weeks ago when a report surfaced that the Rabbitohs were set to sack Demetriou in order to pursue Meninga for the rest of the season.
Menginga openly admitted that he hadn’t been formally approached by the club as the Rabbitohs were just as quick to put their full support behind Demetriou.
With the Rabbitohs falling to their fifth loss of the 2024 season on Saturday night, Meninga publicly declared he is not in the running for the top job at Souths yet.
“I think it’s all smokescreens, to be honest with you,” Meninga told SEN 1170 The Throwdown.
“I haven’t had any contact with the Souths club at all, obviously it’s leaked out somehow, my name was associated with a move that they were (reportedly) contemplating.
“I knew Dave (Furner) was going there but that didn’t come from the Souths club that was from other sources.
“Obviously (there’s) true rumours coming out of the club, so there’s leaks like a sieve at the moment.”
Meninga also theorised that the report leaked in order to put pressure under both coach and the under-performing stars of the squad.
“You feel like they used my name to I guess motivate the team, I don’t know what their motivations were,” Meninga added.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone, I have just been working through it, storm in a teacup really.