Bennett blasts bunker as big miss adds to Bunnies’ pain

George Clarke | June 5, 2026

An angry Wayne Bennett has teed off at the bunker after the NRL’s video review system failed to pick up on a blatant handling error in South Sydney’s loss to Manly.

The Sea Eagles won 28-14 at Four Pines Park on Thursday to condemn the Bunnies to a third-straight defeat but Bennett’s side were well in the game and trailed 10-8 up until Clayton Faulalo crossed in the 49th minute.

There was nothing wrong with the fullback’s put-down but Manly forward Ben Trbojevic clearly fumbled the ball prior to Faulalo’s try.

Referee Adam Gee did not notice the error and neither did the bunker and the try was awarded, which left Bennett seeing red.

“He didn’t play the ball properly, did he? It’s as simple as that, they pay all this money for the bunker and we still don’t get it right,” Bennett said.

“We weren’t playing well, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse. But the bottom line is that’s what they’re there for.

“If that’s an acceptable play the ball, then the game is going to change enormously really quickly.

“The game will have an excuse for it so you’ve just got to live with it.”

Bennett’s frustration was amplified by the fact Souths had a try to Ed Kosi chalked off only a few minutes earlier.

After Faulalo scored Manly pulled clear to record their eighth win in 10 games under Kieran Foran.

“We’ve got a bunker, it’s supposed to be perfect because they expect us to be perfect,” Souths coach Bennett said.

“I’m a fan of no bunker, I can tell you. I’d rather the game played on and (we) accept it like we always accepted it.

“They don’t get it right all the time, and they should, because they’ve got the benefit of hindsight, and there’s no time limit on their decision making.”

The loss leaves Souths with a 6-6 record and depending on other results this weekend, Bennett’s men could slide out of the top eight.

Latrell Mitchell is pencilled in to return at the end of this month and the Rabbitohs have won just one of their four games without their star centre.

“I’ve got young guys in that team there that haven’t played a lot of NRL and I’ll cop that a little bit off them,” Bennett said.

“But the older players are better than that.

“They’ve got to take some ownership of what their jobs are out there, they get well paid to do it.”