Wayne Bennett breaks silence on Haas heist

Super coach Wayne Bennett ranks the poaching of Payne Haas from Brisbane to the Rabbitohs as up there as one of the biggest signings he’s ever seen.

At 76-year-old he’s been around long enough to have witnessed a fair few.

Jaws were on the floor when news broke on the weekend that the 26-year-old star prop would defect at season’s end for a move to Sydney and reunite with Bennett.

The move is not financially motivated, according to those in the know amid reports the salary on offer for the three year deal at Souths is more or less the same than his current pay cheque ($3.6m across the life of the deal).

So how did Bennett pull off the heist?

“Latrell said to me about 12 months ago, ‘Get Payne here’ … so I did,” he told News Corp.

“I never thought I would coach Payne Haas at Souths.

“None of this really kind of happened until that time frame when Keano left and we had some money.

“They (Latrell and David Fifita) may have texted him (Haas) and he may have texted them.

“That was their involvement, texting each other and they informed me they were talking.

“He is a very very good athlete. He has good footwork, really good speed, tremendous endurance, he has all the qualities that make these good players what they are. He has made himself into a great player, it’s a credit to him.”

Not since Glenn Lazarus moved from the Raiders to Brisbane has Bennett sent such shockwaves through the NRL world.

SEN’s Corey parker was at a loss to explain what would motivate one of the biggest names in the sport to leave a premiership winning side for one that finished 13th.

“It’s a huge signing,” Bennett continued.

“You would nearly have to go back to Glenn Lazarus leaving Canberra to come to Brisbane, that was huge at the time. He made a real difference at our club at the Broncos.

“There have been a lot of signings since then but I don’t know of any as big as that Lazarus signing. He was like Payne back then. He was the best prop in the game.

“Greg Inglis going to Souths was another huge signing, but Payne is right up there with the biggest I’ve seen.

“We can do something special.”