Crawley files: Wayne Bennett looks back at every league grand final he has been involved in
It was the grand final stunt that inspired a premiership win, but backfired spectacularly after the game — and it still makes Wayne Bennett laugh today.
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From his first meeting with the original super coach Jack Gibson way back in the 1979, to the devious trick he played on an unsuspecting Brian Smith in 1993, Wayne Bennett tells some fabulous grand final stories.
And right here are the highlights and lowlights from his incredible 45 years in coaching.
Counting down to Sunday’s blockbuster showdown between South Sydney and Penrith, the now 71-year-old Bennett has opened up about the personal memories from all 12 of his previous premiership deciders.
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From the time a 29-year-old rookie coach at Brisbane Souths called on Gibson for help when Bennett was a young coach searching for answers to the enormity of the Broncos’ breakthrough premiership in the big league in 1992, and “what it meant to Queensland”.
Bennett was also adamant there was nothing hollow whatsoever about the Broncos’ 1997 Super League title, despite the eternal memories connected with Newcastle’s famous victory in the ARL comp.
The following year Bennett said his team proved they were the best when they claimed back-to-back titles, while beating the Knights in a mid-season blockbuster with what was arguably the greatest team he ever coached.
Bennett said he would also never forget the raw emotion of watching two of the toughest men he has known, Dean and Craig Young, burst into tears after St George Illawarra’s drought-breaking triumph in 2010.
There was also some funny stories, none better than the trick he played on Smith after Bennett doctored up some of Smith’s old tip sheets that led to Alfie Langer leading that infamous post-match chant “St George can’t play”.
Of course, Bennett has had his own share of disappointment, none greater than the heartbreak of that historic 2015 decider when the Broncos went down in an extra-time thriller to the Cowboys.
To this day Bennett maintains: “The heartbreak was not the (Ben Hunt) dropped ball”.
These are Bennett’s best and worst grand final memories compiled over the course of an astonishing career which now stretches coaching teams into grand finals for a phenomenal six decades — from the 1970s through to the 2020s.
THE BEGINNING
1979 Valleys 26, Souths 0
Bennett was 27 when he went to Brisbane’s Souths to play and ended up captain-coach.
It was 1977 and the following year the club went broke.
They ended up losing 15 players in 1978 but the following season, against the odds, they made their way into a preliminary final when Bennett called in a favour.
“The chairman of the juniors, a guy named Jack Astill, he was an outstanding guy and he built a great club, and his son Bruce played in the centres and he was captain,” Bennett recalled.
“Anyway, he asked what could he do to help us get to the grand final.
“I said I would love Jack Gibson to come up and talk to the team.”
It’s a wonderful symmetry looking back that the original super coach was also coaching South Sydney.
“That was my first contact with him,” the now South Sydney coach said of the man who, along with Ron Massey, became Bennett’s mentor.
“I went and picked him up from the airport and he stayed overnight with us, showed a great video, gave a great talk … but after he’d given the talk we were sitting in the car and I am driving him back to the airport and he said, ‘Wayne, you will win tomorrow but you won’t win next week because I won’t be here to help you’.
“I just laughed and said, ‘Good on you Jack, thank you very much.’ Anyway, we got comprehensively beaten.”
BIGGEST EMBARRASSMENT
1984 Wynnum-Manly 42, Souths 8
Bennett said he made a bad decision in 1980 when he left Souths after three seasons to coach Brothers, a club he had played for.
He only did it because Gibson used to say you should only stay at one club for three years.
Anyway, he then went back to Souths to replace Bob McCarthy in 1984 and they made the grand final.
It still finished as one of Bennett’s “most embarrassing moments”.
“We didn’t have a great team, we just had a mob of guys having a go,” he said.
“Wynnum was the team that had Wally Lewis and all those State of Origin players.
“It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life in football. I felt like I had failed everybody and it was such an abysmal score for a grand final. It wasn’t what I wanted for the game.”
THE FIRST TITLE
1985 Souths 10, Wynnum-Manly 8
Bennett had to fight to get his job back but when he did he listened to some advice and made some tough decisions.
That meant getting rid of a lot of players.
“I only took four players out of the ’84 team back to the grand final,” he recalled.
That was the year John Elias was judged man of the match in what Bennett remembered as “an unbelievable win. No one gave us a chance.”
THE BIG LEAGUE
1987 Manly 18, Canberra 8
The story about how Bennett landed in Canberra is as fascinating as the grand final, given it was only the result of a strong Canberra administration that Bennett got his first shot at the big time.
The season earlier, Allan McMahon had run a campaign to out Don Furner as coach but, what he underestimated, was Furner’s pull with the club’s top powerbroker.
“Les McIntyre ran the club and no one was going to tell Les who could coach his team,” Bennett explained.
So ultimately, what it did was give a young bloke from Brisbane his chance to come down and co-coach with Furner — and the rest, as they say, is history.
Bennett knew the Raiders were in trouble when the town put on a grand final parade three days before the game such was the excitement. But it taught Bennett a valuable lesson for the years to come.
MAKING HISTORY
1992 Brisbane 28, St George 8
After returning to Brisbane to take charge of the Broncos in 1988, the first premiership in ’92 remains to this day one of Bennett’s all-time favourite moments.
“It meant a lot to me personally but I know what it meant to Queensland and I knew what it meant to the Broncos,” he said.
“We’d always been seen as not equal to NSW when it came to rugby league … and, all of a sudden, we had our own team and our own players and that is why I went home. I wanted to be the first coach of a Queensland team in the NSW Rugby League.”
‘ST GEORGE CAN’T PLAY’
1993 Brisbane 14, St George 6
“That was a gutsy win,” Bennett said as he rattled off the tough end-of-season run to claim Brisbane’s first back-to-back premierships.
“We beat Manly. We beat Canberra. And we beat the Dragons.”
But arguably the most famous memory of this game for those old enough to remember is the stunt Bennett pulled on Smith to fire up his team on the morning of the match.
Bennett recalled how his team was battered and bruised and looking for some inspiration when he somehow got his hands on Smith’s grand final tip sheets from the previous year.
And so with the help of his old mate, Bob Bax, he doctored them up before calling an impromptu team meeting hours before the match to motivate his players.
He’d told them how he’d come into possession of Smith’s match notes and as he read from the piece of paper he made sure every comment cut to the bone.
Kerrod Walters “was no more than a speed bump” and Kevvie “was an overrated fat liar who couldn’t play”, Trevor Gillmeister “wasn’t as tough as he made out”.
It worked a treat.
The only problem was after the game Bennett forgot to tell the players he’d made it all up.
It was only after everyone started blowing up about the Broncos’ embarrassing post-match antics that he heard about his players singing “St George can’t play” during their post-match interviews.
Nearly 30 years on it still makes him laugh.
SUPER LEAGUE NOT HOLLOW
1997 Brisbane 26, Cronulla 8
Asked if winning the Super League title felt hollow, Bennett bristled: “No way. Why would it? That was the comp we were in. The club had chosen that path and you still had quality teams, quality players. We were the best team in that comp.”
BENNETT’S BEST TEAM?
1998 Brisbane 38, Canterbury 12
Bennett still remembers the game in round eight when the Broncos played the Knights and the two champions from the split comps collided, with the Broncos winning 26-6.
“It was an outstanding game of football. We were at it for about 60 minutes before they buckled,” Bennett recalled.
There is a strong argument that just might have been the greatest team Bennett ever coached with the likes of Lockyer, Renouf, Sailor, Kevvie Walters and Langer in the backs — and a forward pack that included Tallis, Thorn, Webcke, Civoniceva, Campion and Tonie Carroll.
Asked if it was his best, Bennett said: “That’s an argument we can all have one day. It was a hell of a team.”
‘INTIMIDATED EVERYBODY’
2000 Brisbane 14, Sydney Roosters 6
“Just monsters at the height of their fame,” was how Bennett remembers this pack.
“They just physically intimidated everybody we played. Alf was retired by then but Kevvie was halfback and he got them around the park. I don’t think anyone matched us that season.”
GREATEST COACHING TRIUMPH
2006 Brisbane 15, Melbourne 8
This was arguably Bennett’s greatest coaching triumph.
“They were all at the end of their careers, Webcke and co, but they had one more game in them … that was some win,” Bennett said.
But that was also the year the Broncos had a run of five losses in the back half of the season before they made their charge.
Four games before the finals they suffered another defeat when they went down 18-12 to Melbourne. But it was after that game Bennett marched into the rooms and told his players: “We will win the premiership”.
And even though they again went down in week one of the finals they fought back.
Bennett clearly remembers how in the preliminary final they were getting smashed by Canterbury at halftime and in the tunnel big Willie Mason made the mistake of giving it to Webcke, telling him to enjoy Mad Monday.
“It just fired them up,” Bennett recalled.
They capped it off beating the Storm side that most thought couldn’t lose in the big one.
‘SOMETHING PRETTY SPECIAL’
2010 St George Illawarra 32, Roosters 8
You don’t often hear Bennett get emotional when he talks in interviews but he did when he recalled what it was like to see Dean and Craig Young embrace after that famous Dragons victory.
“Dean Young is one of the best guys I have ever coached and I watched his father play and he was one of the toughest guys I saw play,” Bennett said.
“And when you see them both hugging each other and crying you just know it is something pretty special because those guys don’t cry.
“I was so pleased for those boys because they had been much maligned and criticised.
“They’d lost five grand finals since they’d won their last one 30-odd years ago (in 1979). And every time we lost a big game the media would jump on us and call us chokers … I had to build a lot of confidence.”
GREATEST HEARTBREAK
2015 North Queensland 17, Brisbane 16
We all remember the Ben Hunt drop ball. Asked if this was his greatest heartbreak, Bennett offered: “It was. We had that game won.
“But the heartbreak wasn’t the dropped ball. It was that we went away from our game plan somewhere in the second half. And we were trying to slow the game down which wasn’t the way we wanted to play … we lost that game in the 80 minute period. It wasn’t in the overtime.”
Souths duo ‘statistically’ better than Broncos pair
—Peter Badel
Wayne Bennett has likened Cody Walker and Adam Reynolds to legendary Broncos duo Kevin Walters and Allan Langer with the Souths pair officially rugby league’s best halves pairing of the past 41 years.
In a remarkable statistical snapshot of their dominance, Rabbitohs aces Walker and Reynolds go into Sunday’s grand final against Penrith as the code’s most lethal long-serving halves pairing in four decades.
With 74 wins from 106 games, Souths schemers Walker and Reynolds will run out for the Suncorp decider against the Panthers boasting a 70 per cent strike-rate.
It is the best success rate of any scrumbase union, to have played at least 100 first-grade games together, since 1980.
In a rare endorsement of his scrumbase matchwinners, Bennett sees parallels between Walker and Reynolds and the brilliant Langer-Walters strike force which spearheaded the Broncos’ golden dynasty.
Langer, Brisbane’s greatest halfback, won four premierships in a stellar 258-game career, while Walters was the five-eighth partner-in-crime who celebrated five titles, captaining Brisbane to glory in the 2000 grand final.
Now, three decades after the Langer-Walters alliance gave Bennett his first Winfield Cup premiership in 1992, the Souths super coach is banking on the Walker-Reynolds union to topple Penrith on the very Suncorp soil the Broncos champion halves dominated.
“Cody and Adam remind me so much of ‘Alfie’ (Langer) and Kevin,” Bennett said.
“Alfie and Kevvie were great players of their era and these guys (Walker and Reynolds) are no different in their importance to our team.
“Cody and Adam play for each other. They have a great rapport with each other.
“It’s a great combination and a great understanding.”
Bennett explained why his Rabbitohs scrumbase tacticians are the closest thing to the Langer-Walters magic show which underpinned Brisbane’s charge to six premierships in 14 years between 1992-2006.
“I do see the similarities, both you have to switch the jersey numbers,” Bennett said.
“I see Adam as more like Kevin and Cody is more like Alf.
“Like Alf, Cody can seize the moment. He can play off the top of his head and play what’s in front of him, he has rare instincts.
“Cody and Alfie can both do something when you least expect it.
“With Adam and Kevin, they are very good settling the whole team down and getting the ball to the right people at the right time.
“They don’t overplay their hand or play what’s in front of them like Cody and Alf, but they are just as influential.
“The joy for me as a football lover is watching Adam and Cody play together.
“They are the halves that put you in grand finals and win you premierships.”
Reynolds, who first combined with Walker when the Rabbitohs pivot arrived from Melbourne in 2016, says the former NSW Origin No.6 is Souths’ X-factor in the grand final.
“Cody is a winner,” he said.
“He is instinctive in pushing-up on plays, but that is his competitive nature.
“He loves competing on every play and that is where his instinctiveness comes from. It is purely through structure.
“It’s exciting this week because we have to come up with a new way to break Penrith down.
“Cody prepares for moments at training as if he is playing in a game. He perfects it. He has worked extremely hard to perfect his skills.”
Revealed: Who was behind Panthers’ Bennett snub
Penrith chief executive Brian Fletcher has lifted the lid on the club’s snubbing of Wayne Bennett, revealing how Panthers bosses vetoed Phil Gould’s interest in the super coach to secure his grand-final rival Ivan Cleary.
Souths mentor Bennett is hellbent on returning to haunt the Panthers in Sunday night’s NRL decider at Suncorp Stadium — three years after Penrith management made a bold decision to choose Cleary over the NRL’s greatest coach.
Former head of football Gould was so convinced that Bennett could take the Panthers to a third title that he made a recommendation for Penrith’s board to strike a deal with the seven-time premiership-winning coach.
It is alleged Gould even did a handshake deal with Bennett, but his pursuit of the sacked Broncos coach collapsed as Penrith’s board ramped-up plans for Cleary’s second coming at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
As Bennett and Cleary prepare to square-off for premiership bragging rights, Fletcher believes Penrith’s resurgence over the past two years has vindicated their decision to overlook the super coach.
“Wayne was brought to our attention for sure,” Fletcher revealed in the build-up to Souths-Penrith decider at Suncorp Stadium.
“At that particular point in time, we were looking for a coach and Phil Gould had a wrap on Wayne.
“Phil had some ideas on Wayne and pointed out he was available.
“Phil sounded him out and it wasn’t a bad idea considering the great coach Wayne is.
“It was a case of do you want Wayne or don’t you want him?
“Wayne’s name was mentioned, but it didn’t get any traction with the board.
“We had two good suggestions (Bennett and Cleary), but it (the potential signing of Bennett) didn’t get to a formal stage with the board.”
Bennett and Cleary waged a war of words a fortnight ago following Souths’ shock finals defeat of the Panthers over Penrith’s blocking tactics and the super coach may yet have the last laugh over his rival.
While Bennett has won seven titles from nine grand-final appearances, Cleary remains without a premiership as he prepares for his third decider.
Fletcher, however, is adamant Penrith made the right call with their high-level backing of Cleary, who returned to the Panthers in 2019 after being shown the door by the club four years earlier.
“It made sense to look at Wayne because he is a great coach, but we had plans to get Ivan Cleary and it’s turned out to be a masterstroke,” Fletcher said.
“We went with Ivan because he was familiar with the Penrith area and even though he had left the club for the Wests Tigers (in 2016), we felt he could come back and develop the young guys we had coming through.
“Sometimes decisions are made to move a coach on and Ivan went away, but coming back we felt he was more experienced and had improved as a coach.
“The board didn’t have a problem bringing him back. It was unanimous and we rubber-stamped it.
“If you look at our results over the last two years, Ivan has done a fantastic job and I would love to see him get the premiership he deserves.
“He has done a marvellous job.”
Panthers back-rower Kurt Capewell has been coached by both Bennett and Cleary. Capewell worked with Bennett during Queensland’s epic Origin series last November, but says Cleary has taken his game in the NRL to another level.
“Ivan is an awesome coach and his assistants here have been top notch,” he said. “I’ve developed my game since I’ve been at the Panthers and gone on to play Origin. I have Ivan and his team to thank for that.
“I like the type of coach Ivan is, he is so genuine and such a nice bloke and so approachable. He is big on off-the-field development and what sort of man you are so it’s great to have a coach like Ivan to guide us through the ups and downs of a season.
“I’ve been coached by both of them. Like Ivan, Wayne is a people person and very easy to talk to. They are very wise people so to have them to lean on when you are feeling the pressures of the game, it helps.”
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