Legendary NRL mentor Wayne Bennett takes Firebirds coach Bec Bulley under his fin
The Queensland Firebirds’ new coach Bec Bulley faced a baptism of fire in 2023 during her first time in a head coaching role. She’s teamed up with a coach who’s seen it all - legendary NRL coach Wayne Bennett.
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Queensland Firebirds mentor Bec Bulley has tapped into one of the savviest minds in Australian sport in a bid to fast-track her development and lead the Super Netball club back to the finals.
Bulley, who took the reins at the Firebirds last season in her first head coaching role, forged a relationship with rugby league super coach Wayne Bennett, gaining valuable insight from the master mentor.
A former NSW Swifts assistant coach, Bulley experienced a baptism of fire in her first year as a head coach, parting ways with her own assistant just days out from the season start and guiding a side that struggled at times for consistency and cohesion.
Being able to gain insight from Bennett taught Bulley not just more about coaching, but how to trust her own instincts.
In an arrangement that started last pre-season and lasted throughout the Super Netball competition and into the post-season period, Bulley learnt key lessons from the Queensland master.
“He was absolutely brilliant,” Bulley said.
“I can’t believe how beneficial he was, how helpful and also honest with me as well.
“He had some brilliant advice that I was so thankful for.”
There’s little Bennett hasn’t experienced during more than 40 years as a head coach.
“He shared his experiences of being a head coach and some of the struggles that he had but also some of the highs he had,” Bulley said.
“But also I felt like I could bounce things off him around things that I might have been experiencing and he gave some really good feedback on what actions I needed to take. And you know what, he absolutely nailed it.”
The pleasing thing for Bulley, who also called on former mentor Julie Fitzgerald, the woman nicknamed the “Wayne Bennett of netball”, who completed a 25th year at the helm of a national league outfit last year while guiding Super Netball’s Giants, was that both Bennett and Fitzgerald would often confirm what her instinct was already telling her.
“The value that I found in working with someone like Wayne was that he’d been through so much that anything that I brought up with him, he’d had experience of and he was just really honest and gave me really good feedback around that,” Bulley said.
“But it was also reassuring because what he said to me was actually what I thought. I really just didn’t have the confidence and experience to back my judgment, so that was certainly really reassuring.
“And there were times as well that I reached out to Julie Fitzgerald. I would say that she reminds me of Wayne Bennett and Wayne reminds me of Julie as well.
“They’ve had a lot of experience and can give you some really great tips and tools and share some of their knowledge. And, again, it’s reassuring to know that it’s not just in my head, I am actually on the right track.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though.
“There are things that they challenged me on and said: ‘Is there another way you can do it?’. And I’d say, ‘you’re right, let’s give it a go’.
“It’s about being authentic to yourself, but also, they’ve been around for quite a time and really know what they’re doing to be so successful, so just to trust them as well.”
Bulley has applied the relentless work ethic that propelled her to become a Diamonds international to her coaching career and made hay during an off-season frustratingly lengthened by the recent pay dispute, preparing meticulously to ensure the Firebirds could hit the ground running when they were able to begin training.
“I think when I first took this role, it was one I really wasn’t expecting … it really came out of the blue for me,” Bulley said.
“I worked so hard in my first year, but there’s only so much you can do. To be honest, the ongoing CPA negotiations were probably a little bit of a blessing for me because that allowed me really to dedicate a lot of time to planning and the preparation and things that I really wanted to implement but just didn’t have the time last year.
“There’s been some great changes and I do feel a lot of ownership for implementing all those changes and I’m really excited to see the results come from that.”
Originally published as Legendary NRL mentor Wayne Bennett takes Firebirds coach Bec Bulley under his fin
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