Tough decisions come with the job for NRL coaches — so why is Wayne Bennett under pressure?
BRISBANE coach Wayne Bennett might not be winning the popularity stakes these days, but don’t let anyone fool you the criticism of him is anything but personal.
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IT’S no wonder Wayne Bennett is fed up to have to continually defend his position at the Brisbane Broncos.
Bennett might not be winning the popularity stakes these days, but don’t let anyone fool you the criticism of him is anything but personal.
Here are the stats that show Bennett hasn’t lost his coaching mojo.
PRESSURE: Something has changed in Bennett
KENT: Bennett has lost the plot
Since he returned to the Broncos in 2015, Fox Sports Stats show Bennett’s winning strike rate is 64.56 per cent, which is actually up on his career record of 61.9 per cent.
And over the past three-and-a-bit years, his winning record is second only to Craig Bellamy (72.15).
That puts Bennett ahead of Shane Flanagan (62.03), Paul Green (59.49) and Trent Robinson (56.96), the top five coaches employed throughout this period.
Anthony Griffin’s record at Penrith since 2016 is 58.18 per cent, which would put him above Robinson.
Des Hasler was next best (52.78), while Ricky Stuart (50.63) and Paul McGregor (50.63) are the only other coaches with a better-than-average strike rate, aside from Anthony Siebold (57.14), who has only coached seven games.
Let’s not forget 68-year-old Bennett is now in his 32nd season in the national competition (before that he coached for a decade in the Brisbane comp). Thursday night’s game against South Sydney will be his 796th in the big league.
In that time, Bennett has achieved everything that the greatest coaches have accomplished, although none have achieved what Bennett has.
He has won seven of nine grand finals, four of seven State of Origin series.
He has coached Australia, and England and New Zealand into World Cup finals.
Again, after all this, his strike rate since 2015 has actually gone up. Yet people continue to talk him down.
Some of them wouldn’t know a football from a watermelon.
If we are going to continue this campaign to try and tear apart Bennett’s legacy, at least call it for what it is: personal, not professional.
I have heard it mentioned several times this season that the Broncos haven’t won a premiership since 2006.
It seems, like the Rick Stone missing chapter in Newcastle history, people conveniently forget Bennett wasn’t at the club between 2009 and 2014, although Bennett did win a comp with St George Illawarra in 2010.
In the 613 games Bennett has coached Brisbane, his record is 63.6 per cent.
Ivan Henjak’s winning record at the Broncos was 52.9 per cent and Griffin’s was 53.5 per cent.
That blows away the theory anyone can succeed at this club.
The year before Bennett returned to Brisbane, the Broncos finished eighth in the regular season.
In 2015 they made the grand final and were nailed in golden-point thriller.
Many rate that game against North Queensland the best grand final in the modern era.
Ultimately, it came down to a wobbly Johnathan Thurston field goal after Ben Hunt’s infamous dropped ball.
Do we mark that as a blight on Bennett’s record? I certainly don’t.
In 2016, the Broncos finished fifth.
You will remember at the start of last season Bennett had apparently lost his aura, and the dressing room. Yet they went on to finish third.
You may also recall the Broncos went into the finals series without the injured Andrew McCullough and Darius Boyd playing on one leg.
That is not an excuse. That is reality.
Before a ball was kicked this year, many experts didn’t have the Broncos in their top eight.
Yet that performance against Melbourne last week told me they will be in this competition up to their ears.
They didn’t have Matt Gillett last week and now they will be without McCullough for a month.
You want to write them off? Go for your life.
Of 15 men in the game’s history in Australia who have coached more than 300 games, Bennett’s record (61.9 per cent), is fourth overall behind Bellamy (67.9), Bob Fulton (64.4) and Jack Gibson (62.2).
But Bennett has coached basically twice as many games as Bellamy (403), Fulton (405) and Gibson (394).
People will say a lot of the personal criticism is Bennett’s own doing because he has done the wrong thing by some people. He has also done right by many.
To survive as a head coach, they all make tough decisions that aren’t always popular.
I look back to the end of last year when Robinson made the call to bring Cooper Cronk to the Sydney Roosters that ultimately forced Mitchell Pearce to leave.
Before that, Robinson and Pearce were best buddies. You don’t reckon that’s changed?
As we saw with Robinson who is only in year six of his career, it goes with the territory.
No one is saying Bennett is a saint. But he is a bloody great football coach.
Was and still is.
If the Broncos are chasing Bellamy or anyone else to replace Bennett when his contract expires at the end of 2019, good luck to them.
But until then, just give the man the respect he has earned.
Originally published as Tough decisions come with the job for NRL coaches — so why is Wayne Bennett under pressure?
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