Anthony Griffin: Only a victory over Wayne Bennett can silence Anthony Seibold’s critics
Anthony Seibold is an inexperienced coach in a city starved of the success they expect. Nothing less than victory over Wayne Bennett’s Rabbitohs will be good enough writes ANTHONY GRIFFIN.
Broncos
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Thursday’s game presents Anthony Seibold with a monumental opportunity.
A victory over Wayne Bennett on the field will temporarily silence the critics and signal Brisbane’s arrival as a competition force.
Seibold and the Broncos have had a disappointing start to the season.
The new coach is learning the hard way about life when you’re the leader of the biggest sporting brand in Queensland.
Trust me, I know.
The Broncos are a publicly listed company with a rich history of premiership success in a rugby league-mad city of more than two million people.
They haven’t won a title since 2006 and with every year that goes by without one, the expectations become more intense.
In the end even, the legend himself Wayne Bennett wasn’t spared when the club believed that the trophy was getting further away under his last tenure.
When you are the Broncos’ head coach you carry those expectations every day. Even when you’re winning games you can sense a certain undercurrent waiting for the next loss.
At the back end of my first year as Broncos coach in 2011, we were running second and heading towards the finals.
PRESSURE COOKER
I got my first taste of life in the hot seat when some ex-players and journalists started asking questions: why weren’t the Broncos attacking well enough? Why weren’t we leading the competition?
The media need big stories out of the sporting flagship of the city.
If it’s not fantastic wins on which to report, they sensationalise the losses and the reasons for them.
Enter the old boys — champions of the club and the game who knocked up winning premierships during the glory days of the 1990s.
They’re entitled to their opinions and deliver them in no uncertain terms. Times may have changed but that means little to them and the people of Brisbane.
I took interest in the way Seibold was handling the media in his first off-season.
Having been there, I could reflect on what was happening to him.
He answered every question with enthusiasm and excitement. The more he divulged about his theories and techniques, the more they fed off him.
It was like — “oh great, then what are you going to do? And after that, what are you going to do?”
He innocently led with his chin and only a faultless start to his first season would prevent him from getting knocked out.
Finally, after weeks of simmering pressure, the tipping point came and he walked out of the post-match press conference last Saturday night.
THE MASTER PLAN
Bennett is the master of the mind games and manipulating the media. He has endured a career of more than 800 games, 627 of those with the Broncos.
He is also the master of preparing a team for battle. Any young coach who wants to know what’s “really important” about coaching in the NRL should go back and watch South Sydney’s victory over Penrith last Friday night.
The Panthers were steeled for the performance of their season after the week they had been through. At home on a greasy Penrith Friday night they were almost unstoppable.
The spanner in the works was that Bennett was just as excited. He knew this was an opportunity too good to miss.
He challenged his team to walk head-on into the fight and dismantle the enemy. Get the two points but, more importantly, build a resilience and belief in themselves that will help them win bigger games in a few months’ time.
It wasn’t about Xs and Os — it was about attitude, commitment and overcoming adversity. Souths didn’t play that well. Penrith had 60 possessions inside Souths’ 20m, compared to the Rabbits’ 15.
However, Souths looked calm, eerily so, as if they already knew the result.
In their minds they did. They had been thoroughly prepared for it mentally, which was more important than any technical advice which would have formed part of their preparation.
CRUNCH TIME
When you’re coaching, every now and again a game comes along that presents you and your team with an opportunity to do something special. For Seibold and the Broncos, this is one of those games.
The Rabbitohs are at home and leading the competition. The old master has his been galvanising his troops all week.
They will be rock-hard prepared.
The build-up to the contest has had a finals-like intensity and atmosphere.
A Broncos victory tonight, however it comes, will signify the unofficial beginning of Seibold’s reign as head coach.
His young team will receive an invaluable boost to their confidence and belief.
If it happens you can bet the coach won’t be walking out of this post-match press conference.
Originally published as Anthony Griffin: Only a victory over Wayne Bennett can silence Anthony Seibold’s critics
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