Champion halfback Adam Reynolds has revealed former coach Wayne Bennett “saved” his marriage during a “tough time” in 2020.
The pair worked together to lead South Sydney to an NRL grand final in 2021 – ultimately falling short against Penrith in the decider – before Reynolds left the burrow to move north and play for Brisbane.
But a year earlier, Reynolds’ life was in turmoil off the field when he split from his wife and mother of his four children, Tallara.
It was also during the COVID-19 pandemic when the NRL briefly shut down, before players were asked to relocate to keep the competition alive.
“It was a tough part of my life,” Reynolds told the Inside Ball podcast with Kevin Walters and Ben Dobbin.
“One thing I’ve been really good at is sort of parking the emotions to the side, and focusing on what I need to at that time – if I’m at home I focus on my family, if I’m at the game I focus on the game, training, trying to get better.
“So I was sort of lucky that COVID parked itself a bit, we could resume footy, so that was a distraction for me from my personal life.
“It was a really tough part of my life, it was hard to navigate through that time.”
In his soon-to-be released autobiography Reynolds reveals he split up with his wife for a period during that year.
While he was reluctant to speak about his personal issues to anyone at South Sydney, it was Bennett who pulled his gun No.7 aside one day to get to the bottom of it.
“If I didn’t have that guidance from Wayne I don’t know where I would have been,” Reynolds told Inside Ball.
“Yeah, he saved it (my marriage).
“He is very good at reading the room. I probably wasn’t giving out too much and he grabbed me one day and goes ‘what’s up?’, and you open up because he gets the trust of the person.”
Reynolds and Tallara got back together and the following year they decided to leave Sydney – snubbing a contract offer from Cronulla – and relocate the family to Queensland.
On Friday night Reynolds and Bennett will reunite at Suncorp Stadium where the Broncos host the Rabbitohs – now coached again by Bennett after a stint with the Dolphins.
Bennett is dealing with a crippling Bunnies injury crisis and Reynolds’ Broncos are heavy favourites to win the round 22 fixture.
