It was a historic day for South Sydney but if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t have guessed.

The man mowing the lawns at Redfern Park clearly had no idea of the importance of the day’s press conference, the sound of his motor drowning out every word new Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett uttered in front of a heaving media scrum.

It was business as usual to the untrained eye.

History will see it as two powerhouses combining. It was the day the game’s most successful coach began his time at the game’s most successful club.

For Rabbitohs players, it was just another day of training - although admittedly feeling more self conscious than usual in front of the master coach.

Bennett’s first job of the morning was to put the players through their paces with sprints, an opposed session, and more sprints.

Off to the side stood senior stars Sam Burgess, Cody Walker, Adam Reynolds and John Sutton.

Missing was Damien Cook, despite showing up to his first day back at training on Monday without a head coach. Dane Gagai and the Burgess twins were also nowhere to be seen.

Robert Jennings, hopefully with a pay check in his bank, was also there. As was Alex Johnston, whose future remains unclear as he battles with Greg Inglis and potentially Corey Allan for the fullback position in 2019.

Meanwhile Bennett paced, hands in pockets with his usual way, draped in the famous cardinal and myrtle. Somehow, he made it look normal.

But while curious fans regularly sit in the stands at Redfern Oval watching Souths training - on Tuesday they had an air of trepidation about them. IPhone out, taking pictures, a few of the bravest among them gingerly approached Bennett hoping for a handshake. He kindly obliged.

‘Welcome to South Sydney’, they gushed.

He afforded a warm smile, and with it, won their hearts.

After months of to-and-fro, of speculation and reputational damage, the 68-year-old had finally arrived in Redfern, looking every bit as relaxed as he did in his final and now famous press conference with the Broncos on Friday.

His game face was on.

Facing media for the first time since he was axed as Broncos coach, Bennett was his usual self. Saying just enough, but never quite enough, to appease the questions of the expectant Sydney media.

He wasn’t going to speak about the Broncos the journalists were told.

But he touched on it enough to set the record straight about bringing his coaching staff, including Jason Demetriou and Jeremy Hickmans, to South Sydney. It was never spoken about, he said.

“That’s a bit of a myth actually, I did want to clear that up for the guys up there who have been told to go gardening for a week. They’ve been sidelined for a week, they’ve been told to go away and their futures will be decided next week. I have great empathy for those people. That hasn’t happened here. Not one person was told to go gardening and not one person has lost his job.”

Bennett also said he didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to his Broncos players. “You don’t get that chance when you’re sacked and told not to come back to the building,” he said.

But perhaps the most insightful thing he said in the entire 15-minute press conference was that waiting to be sacked rather than agreeing to be released was important to him.

Everyone leaned a little closer. That damn mower.

“I’ve been a team member all of my life, I live team, I talk team, and some of my team were being isolated and cut out and I couldn’t walk out on them,” he said.

His gentle mumbling is as iconic to rugby league as Tina Turner, but his voice was strong this time.

Journalists lucky enough to catch the line took it as a thinly veiled swipe at the Broncos. But fans also appeared to swell with pride.

South Sydney is a special club with fans who live and breathe it. It’s no hyperbole to call it a religion, and their newest preacher was giving a powerful sermon.

In front of them was a coach willing to defend his players no matter the personal cost.

Much like Bennett, Souths fans have been through some of the darkest days in rugby league history and have emerged stronger than ever.

Whether it’s the whole truth or rhetoric, it’s all part of his magic.

Anthony who?

The two resilient forces have combined and Souths fans are delighted to start a new era under the master coach.

At long last.