When Greg Inglis went for a field goal with South Sydney trailing by two points in a 2016 clash against the Dragons, every Rabbitoh was left stunned.
But never has Sam Burgess been more confused in his entire career than the past few months.
‘’A couple of weeks ago I was preparing for Wayne, last week I was preparing for Seibs, Saturday and Sunday I was preparing for Seibold and today I’m preparing for Wayne,’’ Burgess said.
‘’It has been a bit of a yo-yo. It’s probably the first time in my career where I’ve not known what was going on. Generally I have a pretty good idea.
‘’It’s completely out of my control as a senior player and for us as senior players all we can do is try and be calm around the squad.
‘’We’ve smiled about it, we’ve joked about it, we’ve trained hard and probably come together as a team.
‘’It’s a good thing that we definitely know where we are at with Wayne and we can move forward, but it has certainly been up-and-down, to and fro over the past two weeks.’’
MORE: Anthony Seibold regrets handling of coaching swap 'circus' with Wayne Bennett
South Sydney returned to pre-season training on Monday without a coach, with Wayne Bennett expected to land in Sydney later in the week.
But being coachless for the meantime is far more manageable than having someone in charge who isn't part of their future plans.
‘’Everyone is pretty relieved. The staff that are here and not here, the players - we can all draw a line in the sand which is great,’’ Burgess said.
‘’The boys are pretty excited that Wayne is coming in, he’s certainly iconic in the game.
‘’I’ve been fortunate to work with him for years with the English team so I know what he brings and I think a lot of players will benefit from him.
‘’Everyone has been focussed on themselves. The boys have been talking about it and it’s hard not to but we’ve also been pretty respectful with the coaches that have been here.''
Asked if he held any resentment towards Seibold, the South Sydney leader felt he related to Seibold's situation after making a career move on a similar scale when he defected to rugby in 2015.
‘’It’s not for me to have an opinion on that as a player,’’ he said.
‘’I’ve made decisions in my career for myself and my family at the time so I’m sure he has his own reasons. I respect Seibs and I respect his family.
‘’I can’t say I’m dirty, I’ve been in that position before and I’ve made some decisions myself.
‘’It is a business at the end of the day and we’ll move on and as of today we’ve got Wayne Bennett and Seibold is not my coach and we move on.’’
With so much uncertainty and confusion surrounding the coaching circus, Burgess was unable to properly farewell his former coach in person but he did get the time to send his regards over the phone.
‘’Genuinely I don’t think anyone knew what was going on,'' he said.
‘’Damien Cook got married in the off-season and Seibs came and we had a few beers together and we kind of had a chat there. It was kind of a goodbye or not a goodbye. We kind of didn’t know.
‘’We probably said it last night on the phone properly, but what can you say, it’s a business we’ve got to understand that and it moves quickly.
‘’Sometimes dealing with too much emotion you get attached and you’ve got to learn to let go quick and grab hold of what’s coming in even quicker.''
