NRL Blindside: Wayne Bennett, Craig Bellamy set for awkward meeting in Toowoomba

MASTER coaches Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy will come face-to-face next Friday, as Blindside reveals Bennett has turned up the heat on the Broncos by privately requesting one more contract to coach Brisbane into his 70s.

GET ready for the media to storm Toowoomba.

Residents on the Darling Downs are dancing down the main drag today as Toowoomba prepares to host a luncheon involving Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy.

The super coaches will come face-to-face at an NRL sportsman’s lunch at Clifford Park next Friday.

The pair will be guest speakers and will have plenty to talk about as the Broncos ramp up plans to sign Bellamy as Bennett’s successor at Red Hill.

Let’s hope Wayne doesn’t do a Back Door Benny and pull out at the last minute.

Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy are set to appear together at a Toowoomba lunch. Picture: Nathan Richter / Courier-Mail archive

Storm don’t want Benny

IT would be the coaching swap of the decade. But Melbourne bosses have no intention of targeting Wayne Bennett to replace Craig Bellamy if the Storm coach returns to Red Hill.

One possible solution to avert Bellamy taking 12 months out of rugby league could be for Bennett and Bellamy to trade places next season in the type of straight swap that regularly occurs with player transfers between NRL clubs.

But Blindside understands Bennett is not a Plan B option for the Storm should Bellamy walk out and join Brisbane on a record $5.6 million deal. Ironically, the Storm built their club in 1998 around the Broncos values that Bennett instilled at Red Hill.

But at 68, Bennett is approaching retirement and while he has interest from two NRL clubs, Melbourne won’t be chasing the master coach.

Melbourne’s weapons in the Bellamy-Bennett saga are cashed-up club co-owners Bart Campbell, Gerry Ryan and Matthew Tripp.

The trio are worth around $1 billion collectively – business tycoon Ryan alone had an estimated wealth of $473 million in 2014 – and won’t want to lose a high-stakes battle with the Broncos.

Wayne keen to kick on

WAYNE Bennett has turned up the heat on the Broncos board by privately requesting one more contract to coach Brisbane into his 70s.

Blindside can reveal Bennett recently attended a Broncos board meeting to advise chairman Karl Morris he still had a passion for coaching and was keen to extend his term at the club for the 2020 season and beyond.

The Broncos board listened to Bennett’s pitch but have not committed to an extension beyond his current deal, which expires in 2019.

If Craig Bellamy opts to stay in Melbourne, it could convince Brisbane powerbrokers that Bennett is their best coaching option for the 2020 season.

Bennett has been linked to English club Wigan but he will never coach overseas. The health of his disabled son Justin keeps him in Australia.

Titans cold on Mbye

TITANS coach Garth Brennan says the Gold Coast have not shown any interest in signing Bulldogs fullback Moses Mbye.

Mbye has been linked with an exit from Canterbury as the Bulldogs attempt to fix their dreadful salary cap mess.

He hails from Noosa on the Sunshine Coast and could be a fantastic addition to the Titans squad at fullback when veteran Michael Gordon retires.

Gordon, 34, is contracted next season but the Titans could still add Mbye to their roster to beef up their halves, fullback and hooker depth.

But Brennan said that was unlikely to happen.

“Everyone at the Bulldogs is getting thrown up at the moment,” Brennan said.

“Because he is from up this way his name has been thrown up.

“There has been no talk from our end at all.”