Brisbane’s Wayne Bennett fires back at critics over his refusal to quit Broncos head coaching role
Embattled Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett has opened up on his decision to stay at Brisbane — blasting claims he’d been working as a double-agent and that he’d broken any promises in the process.
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Wayne Bennett is adamant he never broke a promise with Shane Richardson to coach South Sydney in 2019.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Saturday Telegraph, a defiant Bennett also fired back at critics suggesting his decision to stay at Brisbane is further proof of him being selfish, or chasing a huge payout.
“If it was about me I’d be at Souths now,” Bennett scoffed.
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He also blasted claims he had been working as a double-agent behind the Broncos’ backs helping the Rabbitohs prepare for this pre-season, while revealing how private conversations with star forwards Tevita Pangai Junior and Matt Lodge helped convince him to stand by his decision to only leave if he was sacked.
PLAYER POWER
Bennett has copped it from every direction in recent months but behind the scenes he said it was his players, staff and fans who helped him stay strong.
“So much for my critics who said I had lost the change rooms two or three years ago,” Bennett fired.
“It was the change room that brought me through this.
“My critics have great mystical ways of being able to paint me in a different light to what I really am.
“But the fact of the matter is they are not on the ground with me. They do not know what I have been through.
“If it was about me, I would have been long gone.
“Because I have given up something that I want to do, go to Souths and coach there.
“I have given it up for another year.
“If it was about me I’d be at Souths now.
“Leadership can never be about you.”
In fact, Bennett said it was at a Broncos weight session on Thursday morning that support from his players brought him clarity.
“The genuine way they greeted me, you can’t make that shit up,” Bennett said.
“It touched me. It confirmed that they wanted me here. It was important. You are nothing without your players. I have always been a players’ coach. If I have a strength that is it.
“Look at Tevita Pangai. Tevita has knocked back a lot of money. He is in big demand. But he came to the club because of me.
“And he came in on Wednesday and I looked at him and I am thinking to myself, ‘This guy is here because of you’.
“He signed up for one more year, not only because of me, but you are an important part of it.
“And I have a choice here. Do I put myself first and take another job? Or do I put him first and all his teammates.
“And Matthew Lodge. I can safely say with a fair bit of inside knowledge and conversations I have had with Lodgey just before I left for England … He said, ‘are you staying coach?’ And I said, ‘yeah I am’.
“He said, ‘well, I have just got a big offer from Newcastle’.
“But he said, ‘if you are staying I am staying’.
“I want to be able to look him in the eye in two or three years’ time, and Tevita Pangai and a whole lot of other boys, and know I had the chance to leave but I didn’t leave because I did what I said I would do.
“That was always the most important thing to me.
“As a young coach my ambition was to be able to make decisions that may not be popular and may impact on other people.
“But I wanted to be able to walk down the same side of the street as them and know that you might have the shits with me but I can still look you in the eye.”
NO WRONGDOING
Asked specifically if he ever said he would be coaching at Redfern next year, Bennett explained in context: “Was it that explicit? No it wasn’t.
“Was there times I might have indicated I might be there, there may have been.
“Because that is how I felt at the time.
“That is where I was at.
“This wasn’t just close the door, I am not going to think about this.”
Bennett also dismissed claims that he wanted a pre-season army camp organised instead of the trip to the Australian Institute of Sport that Seibold proposed.
“Absolute rubbish,” Bennett said.
“When Shane was in the UK and there was things going on behind the scenes that I was not familiar with until he arrived, which absolutely amazed me and shocked me.
“He started talking to me a little bit about ‘19 because there was pressure coming on them to let Seibold go.
“And he talked about a camp at the AIS.
“I said, ‘well, if I happen to be there’, which I wasn’t optimistic I would, but if I happened to be there I said I would probably prefer to do something else.
“And that was it.
“There was no more conversation about that.
“When it made a headline I asked Shane what had happened.
“He said they had to make a down payment on it and he decided not to prepay it. But they never talked to me again about it.
“That is exactly what happened.”
Bennett conceded it still wasn’t easy making the call to Richardson and Rabbitohs chief executive Blake Solly to inform them of his final decision.
“I didn’t enjoy that,” Bennett said.
“I didn’t want to make that call.
“I talked to Shane and I talked to Blake, he has also been outstanding in this.
Asked if he felt he had let Souths down, Bennett added: “I don’t feel I have done that.
“I am disappointed because of the position they have been put in through no fault of theirs.
“They acted very honourably and I mean that.
“They got dealt a bad hand.
“When I did the deal for 2020 and 2021, Anthony Seibold had not been signed by the Broncos.
“Souths did not want to sack Anthony at that time because he had made no decision about his future.
“So they were being very ethical and they stayed on that course.
“I signed for 20-21 because he wouldn’t commit to them.
“You will remember I had the Wests Tigers (job to replace Ivan Cleary) but I knocked back their contract for the same reasons I have knocked this one back.
“I couldn’t walk away from the players and my staff and the fans.”
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Originally published as Brisbane’s Wayne Bennett fires back at critics over his refusal to quit Broncos head coaching role
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