Wayne Bennett should do the right thing and quit the Newcastle Knights now

WAYNE Bennett should do the right thing and quit the Newcastle Knights now, writes Phil Rothfield.

Wayne Bennett, coach of the Newcastle Knights at team training at Mayfield in Newcastle.

YOU look at Akuila Uate, Jarrod Mullen, Kurt Gidley, Kade Snowden and even Darius Boyd and ask if their games have improved in the past three years under Wayne Bennett.

The answer is no, their form has gone backwards.

Now that the seven-time premiership-winning coach has decided to join the Brisbane Broncos on a three-year deal he should leave the Newcastle Knights immediately.

The $4 million deal he agreed to over the weekend means from this point he is planning for the future of his next employer.

There is nothing more for Bennett to do. The Knights urgently need a man in charge who will be there next year.

There seems little sense in Bennett staying at Newcastle for the remainder of the season.

In any other business, a boss who is leaving to join a rival company would be shown the door straight away. Every other club in the NRL has been planning recruitment for next year for months.

The Knights have the oldest roster in the premiership. They are running 14th on the table and need an overhaul.

KIMMORLEY WANTS TO COACH KNIGHTS

BUZZ: BENNETT SHOULD LEAVE NOW

This club is in much worse shape than when Rick Stone handed over at the end of 2011, a young coach on just $200,000-a-year, a fifth of Bennett’s salary.

Under Stone, the Knights finished the season in eighth, just one win away from fourth spot.

If he comes back next year he will have to start all over again.

The Bennett signings were almost all about short-term success. You don’t bring in old stagers Jeremy Smith, Willie Mason, Craig Gower, Timana Tahu and Clint Newton to win premierships down the track.

It’s now time to start preparing for next year and beyond.

MCKINNON’S DAY HE WILL ‘NEVER FORGET’

I remember back in 2001 a strapping young centre, Justin Hodges, emerged under Bennett as the next big thing at the Broncos. He signed a three-year deal with the Roosters. Bennett not only sacked him from first grade but sent him to the Toowoomba Clydesdales for the remainder of the year.

Why? Because he was no longer part of their plans. The same as Bennett is no longer part of the Knights’ plans.

Bennett rang News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch on Sunday and told him he wanted to return home to the Broncos.

This all happened behind the scenes on Alex McKinnon’s big day. It was the phone call that clinched the deal. And so the premiership he hoped to deliver Newcastle didn’t eventuate.

He has nothing else to do in Newcastle apart from clearing out his office. And that should happen today.

Originally published as Wayne Bennett should do the right thing and quit the Newcastle Knights now