How Wayne Bennett has survived four decades at the top of rugby league

IT was only a throwaway line but it summed up why Wayne Bennett is a 40-year survivor of the piranha pool that is first-grade coaching.

IT was only a throwaway line but it summed up why Wayne Bennett is a 40-year survivor of the piranha pool that is first-grade coaching.

“They (the players) can have their say but if the club starts listening to them they will be in a fair amount of trouble,” Bennett said in response to reports of player power having a large say in whether Neil Henry gets the chop at the Titans.

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There it was, a 40-year journey summed up in a sentence and a key reason why Bennett has not missed a year’s coaching since he started at Souths in Brisbane in 1977, the year Star Wars and Kerry Packer’s World Series cricket were born.

Bennett has been coaching rugby league at the top level since 1977.

Bennett and the clubs he has worked for have never been pushed around by player power.

It’s true that Bennett’s power took time to grow. And certainly it was stronger at some clubs than others. But generally it’s been his way or the highway.

Not always the smooth way or the way everyone wanted. Without question there have been a significant number of broken relationships between Bennett and his former players.

But there is something soothing about a club with clear direction and a firm hand at the top.

When Bennett first joined the Broncos in 1988 he had many spirited discussions with some strong, colourful Broncos board members like the late Paul “Porky’’ Morgan.

Since day one, Bennett has been in charge.

But because the board chased Bennett rather than the other way around, it gave him the clout to say “you can do what you like but I run the team ... you don’t’’.

It has been the case at every club has had been with since.

The great advantage Bennett has over coaches like the recently axed Gold Coast Suns Rodney Eade and the Titans’ under-siege Neil Henry is that Bennett has a pocket full of premierships that bring instant credibility, bargaining power and the right to say “my word is final’’.

They don’t. And it weakened their case in everything they did, from training instructions to dealing with the board, to player recruitments and retention.

Bennett has had this singlemindness since he started his coaching career at Souths at the same age Ben Hunt is now — 27.

Bennett began his coaching career at just 27.

Large chunks of him have never changed, like the fact that he never likes talking about himself or his methods.

This fact was reinforced when I tried to interview him about his 40-year journey.

The conversation went ...

Me: Can you think of a one memory from that first season in 1977?

Bennett: I can think of lots of things but I am not going to tell you about them because I don’t really want to talk about them.

Me: Anything you learnt back then that helps you now?

“I have got answers for all of these questions — they are really easy to answer — but I don’t want to talk about me. You write what you want to write.’’

Bennett is one of the most decorated coaches in rugby league history.

With that he headed inside after Broncos training knowing that there is nothing he gave me that could be construed as him pumping up his own tires.

Don’t give yourself a wrap for the sake of it — it will turn your players off.

The hunch is this is what he was thinking.

It didn’t help me get my story but it’s one of many little secrets to surviving in the jungle for 40 years when most of his your rivals have been swallowed whole.

Originally published as How Wayne Bennett has survived four decades at the top of rugby league