Eras compared as Wayne Bennett’s Brisbane Broncos reign ends

Wayne Bennett’s second coming at Red Hill will be deemed a failure by many, but has he really fallen short of expectation despite reaching another grand final? We compare his two eras in charge.

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• ‘Contract breach’: Bennett’s bitter final chapter
• Bennett’s family time interrupted by axing

In February 2015, two weeks before the start of his second stint at the Broncos, Wayne Bennett was asked if he worried that he might fall short of living up to his own legacy.

“No I don’t,” he said. “That’s the last thing on my mind.”

It might have been the last thing on Bennett’s mind, but now that he has left the club for a second time it is inevitable that the two Bennett eras will be compared.

To be fair to Wayne Bennett, his was always going to be a hard act to follow. Even for Wayne Bennett.

Wayne Bennett’s reign in Brisbane has come to an end. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

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It proved too much for Ivan Henjak and Anthony Griffin when Bennett first left the club in 2008 after an unmatched 21 years and six premierships, why should Bennett be able to achieve it?

According to the man himself during that 2015 interview, because he was a better prepared coach than he had been when he first took on the job in 1988: more confident, more experienced, and mentally prepared for the challenge of leading the most closely scrutinised club in the game.

The record books would suggest he was correct.

Bennett’s first stint at Brisbane landed the club six premierships.

When Bennett led the Broncos in their infancy it took three seasons before they made the play-offs and five years before their first grand final.

In the first year of his second stint they reached the grand final and made the play-offs in all four seasons.

The big difference, of course, is that the 1992 Broncos won that first grand final, and went back-to-back the next year while in 2015 they fell agonisingly short.

And at the Broncos coming second just isn’t an option.

An agonising 2015 NRL grand final loss impacted Bennett’s second coming. Picture Gregg Porteous

Their fans don’t just hope to win, they expect it, and in Bennett’s first 21 years at the club they got used to it with the longest wait between premierships just six seasons.

Since their last win however, it has been 12 years between victory laps, and while Bennett was not coaching the club for six of those years many saw him as a miracle worker when he returned.

That he didn’t deliver the premiership that they so coveted will always mean that in many minds Bennett’s second time at Red Hill was an unmitigated disaster.

Bennett had the same winning percentage in his two stints at Red Hill.

Which is the emotional response, but what about cold hard statistics? What do they say about Bennett Mk I vs Bennett Mk II?

Well, between 1988 and 2008 Wayne Bennett coached the Broncos in 532 matches for 339 wins, 12 draws and 181 losses, a winning percentage of 64 per cent.

Between 2015 and 2018 Bennett was in charge for 95 games for 61 wins and 34 losses, a winning percentage of … 64 per cent.

Which, if not for a last second try, a dropped ball and a field goal on grand final day 2015 might just have been called a draw.

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Originally published as Eras compared as Wayne Bennett’s Brisbane Broncos reign ends