St George-Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett says grand final win a victory for true believers
ELATED Dragons coach Wayne Bennett declared last night's 32-8 win over the Roosters at ANZ Stadium as a victory for the "true believers".
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ELATED St George-Illawarra coach Wayne Bennett declared last night's 32-8 win over the Roosters at ANZ Stadium as a victory for the "true believers".
It was proof there was never much wrong with the culture at a club widely condemned as big-match chokers, the master coach claimed.
Bennett also admitted the euphoria surrounding the win was greater than his six premierships with the Broncos, given the Dragons had gone 31 years without a title.
He said he thought the Dragons could win the title last year, his first in charge, but they had become rattled at the back end of the season when they bowed out in straight sets in the finals.
"This premiership is really about the true believers," Bennett said. "They believed this year. They weren't sure last year, but they believed this year and that's the difference.
"They believed they could win and they believed they could beat anybody they played.
"Being down at halftime wasn't an issue. Last year it was. We (the coaching staff) got it right off the field and they got it right on the field."
The Roosters led the grand final 8-6 and should have led by more, given the way they had dominated territorially and in the rucks.
"I'm so happy for these guys," Bennett said. "There are a number of players here who have been through difficult times and they didn't know when it was going to come.
"But I didn't walk into a club that was a basket case. I just managed to put a few little things to it. I just helped them get where they wanted to go and they deserve it and we don't have to worry about all the rubbish (of being alleged chokers), going forward.
"To their credit, the players bought into the approach we took to it. But certainly you wouldn't want to coach the team the way you read about them.
"They were much maligned before I arrived. But they were a much better team than I thought they were and (previous coach) Nathan Brown did a really good job with them.
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Bennett said the fact it had been 31 years since the Dragons won a premiership meant there was a lot more emotion last night than in his six titles at the Broncos.
"In Brisbane we went three or four years maximum after we got our first one in 1992," he said. "
They (Dragons supporters) feel the pain the players feel, they feel the criticism they feel so it was a very emotional victory lap there tonight."
Bennett was reluctant to compare the mental strength of the Dragons and Broncos.
"These guys are great, but there are some wonderful guys at the Broncos and we won a lot games in a similar way to these guys," he said. "I don't want to compare teams. But this team is pretty special and they are mentally tough."
Dragons skipper Ben Hornby said winning a premiership with the Dragons was something he and other players worked at for 10 years.
"It's something that words can't describe - it's surreal," he said.
Bennett said there were times when things were running against the Dragons yesterday, but they played tough and minimised the fallout.
"Coming in at 8-6 (at halftime) we should have been way behind the way we played and the amount of ball we turned over," he said. "But they were digging deep and I could see that they weren't going away.
"It was just a matter of getting back to what we do well in the second half and we did that, and I wasn't surprised when the score started to blow out because psychologically we had broken them down by that stage."
