Master coach Wayne Bennett says he doesn't have "any offers on the table" for next year but hinted that he could play a hand in the NRL's 17th club.
The only certainty around Bennett's future beyond 2021 - he's contracted to the Rabbitohs until November - is he's set to return home to Brisbane.
Speculation around Bennett reuniting with the Broncos whirred into overdrive when veteran South Sydney halfback Adam Reynolds this week signed a three-year deal with Brisbane.
But while Bennett joked about the possibility of joining the former NSW Blues playmaker at the Broncos, the seven-time premiership coach saved a juicy hint for linking with an expansion club.
ARLC chairman Peter V'landys is intent on introducing a second Brisbane club to the NRL in 2023 and has even floated the possibility of having five Queensland teams - two more on top of the Broncos, Cowboys and Titans - by 2027.
"Adam (Reynolds) and myself are going out this afternoon to see if we can find an apartment to live together," Bennett joked with reporters when asked if he was set to rejoin the Broncos.
"But after that I'm not sure what I'm doing.
"I'm coming back to Brisbane, but as I said I have made no decisions about what my future holds or whatever. All I know is I'm coming back.
"At this point in time I don't really have any offers on the table.
"It's not what I'd like to do; it is what some other people would like to do. I can't make decisions about my future. Someone else has to make them.
"They have to go to the negotiation table with me. I have heard from nobody so I will just get on with life."
New Broncos chief executive Dave Donaghy earlier this month opened the door for Bennett to return to the club to guide coach Kevin Walters through the club's arduous rebuild.
It was widely believed that Bennett had dashed any chances of returning to the Broncos amid his bitter sacking in 2018, but Donaghy wasn't at the club at the time.
"I appreciate what he (Donaghy) said. He has been very generous to me," Bennett said.
"But as I said, there has been no suggestion from any of them about coming back except a lot of media speculation and talk from whoever - but not from me. It hasn't come from me."
Bennett refused to disclose which expansion club he might be interested in working with.
"I don't have any preference because I haven't even got an offer," Bennett said.
"You have got to understand I am quite serious that I don't have anything on the table.
"I haven't made any decisions. I am coming home.
"I don't want to buy into what they are all sitting in town talking about it (regarding expansion).
"There is great opportunities in all those areas they are talking about.
"Redcliffe have done a great job. Ipswich have done a good job. Easts are in there and they have got a great club and they have done a great job.
"As I said, it is up to the powers that be, not me."
Bennett built Brisbane into a powerhouse club in his first tenure at Red Hill, overseeing the Broncos from their inaugural 1988 year through to 2008 and leading them to six premierships.
The 71-year-old has since coached the Dragons, who he steered to the 2010 premiership, the Knights and the Rabbitohs.
"Yeah, I would actually (be interested in linking with an expansion club," Bennett said.
"You go back to the Broncos. We were very deliberate about things and why we did them and it was to pay huge benefits to us later on.
"They have got to be built from the ground up and they have got to be built with a strong foundation.
"You have got to be prepared to take some pain and we took some pain in the early years.
"I thought we should have won a premiership long before we did, but we got it right.
"There is a certain level of excitement about that - the ability to start something from scratch.
"Nothing on the page and you can make it into something really special.
"It appeals to me, starting at a new club again, because I certainly know how to build them and that's what you need at the beginning."
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/news-2021-wayne-bennett-south-sydney-rabbitohs-brisbane-broncos-expansion-contract-future/bbc4a2aa-0439-4d63-847c-f552385bfd3c
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