Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins to benefit from psychological weapon once used by Queensland in the Sheffield Shield

It helped give Queensland an edge in the Sheffield Shield and now the Dolphins are using the same strategy. Go inside the club’s psychological weapon.

Wayne Bennett knows all about the psychology of the game. Picture: Getty Images

Former Australian batsman Jimmy Maher believes Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins will benefit from a psychological weapon that once inspired Queensland to its first Sheffield Shield win.

Back in 1994-95, when Queensland won its first Shield title, players such as Maher and Matthew Hayden felt sports psychologist Phil Jauncey put the Bulls ahead of the pack with a psychological profiling system that helped the team understand themselves and each other.

First used by Bennett at the Broncos a few years earlier to find out why the team played differently when contrasting hookers Kerrod Walters and Greg Consecu were rotated, Jauncey employed a system where players’ personalities were divided into four categories.

They are feelers who are the sensitive types, enforcers who like to dominate, thinkers who love detail and working things out and mozzies who buzz around like mosquitoes and must be left to play on instinct.

“It was huge for us and we did it for more than a decade,’’ Maher said.

“It’s no surprise to me that Wayne Bennett is still using this technique with Phil at the Dolphins. It’s really quite simple.

Jimmy Maher believes Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins will benefit from a psychological weapon once used by the Bulls. Picture: Tom Lee

“A lot of new age coaches are looking for the wonder hit but Bennett knows this works. Time changes and the game changes but the mental side of dealing with personalities doesn’t.’’

The Queensland Bulls developed game plans like challenging enforcer Darren Lehmann by stacking the field to stop his cut shot and saying “even you couldn’t find a gap through there’’ or trying to make “thinker’’ Steve Waugh over-think by frequently changing from over to around the wicket for no apparent reason.

Experienced Dolphins forward Mark Nicholls said the profiles had changed his way of analysing his performance.

“According to Phil, I’m a thinker,’’ Nicholls said. “The biggest thing that Phil has showed me is that the danger for thinkers is over thinking. Off the back of over thinking, you can be negative about your performance and how it can have a flow on effect.

“One of the things he suggested to me was to not watch replays of my game because I would watch a replay and wouldn’t see one good thing I did. I would pick out things I should have done better and that put me in a bad headspace rolling into training.’’

Wayne Bennett knows all about the psychology of the game. Picture: Getty Images

Jauncey said he had been encouraged by feedback from the Dolphins.

“Players continually tell me it helps them, especially the captains. Sometimes enforcers say to me “if someone criticises me I will prove the bastard wrong but if I say that to a teammate it unsettles them so I now don’t say it.

“Thinker-feelers are the big ones. They really worry about a mistake and get down on themselves afterwards so you have to work out a way of them not getting down. I tell them I know players with their profiles who have played Test cricket or won gold medals and they say “really.’’

Originally published as Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins to benefit from psychological weapon once used by Queensland in the Sheffield Shield