The NRL coaches working at the top of the game all have complicated relationships

TRENT Robinson and Paul Green’s relationship is based on mutual respect. Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy’s has been worn down by competition, writes PAUL KENT.

Robinson and Green remain close. Picture: Zak Simmonds

BRAD Fittler is comfortable in his chair on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show, which makes what he says next so easy to pop out.

“I was talking to Trent Robinson,” he says, “and he said Michael Morgan’s the best player in the comp. That was before the game — that’s a fair rap.”

Everything else aside, it provided a subtle insight into the respect Robinson holds for the Cowboys and their coach, his former assistant Paul Green.

Safe to say, a similar conversation won’t slip out about Friday’s Melbourne-Brisbane game.

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Robinson and Green remain close. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy were also once close like Green and Robinson but their relationship has fractured over a thousand different bumps to the point it is respectful only because of the damage they could cause each other.

Two games, four coaches, and vastly different stories.

The most famous story told about Bennett and Bellamy is, admittedly, old enough now to shave.

Bennett had this little run he liked to put his players through in the pre-season and, something of a natural runner himself, he would get in early and get himself in condition before putting his players through it, skipping away on them.

Then he appoints Bellamy to the club and, first year in, he skips away on the playing group only to hear the footsteps gaining.

It is the perfect metaphor for how their relationship developed.

Bennett ahead of the opposition, Bellamy approaching, Bellamy overtaking.

Bellamy is Bennett’s most successful protege. While Bellamy has gone on to nurture the careers of head coaches Michael Maguire, Steve Kearney, Anthony Siebold, Brad Arthur and Kevin Walters. Kearney and Walters have also worked under Bennett.

Bennett and Bellamy’s relationship has changed over the years.

Bennett and Bellamy are now an example of what is at stake.

Early on, whenever they played their relationship was brought up and both paid proper deference to the other.

It changed as Melbourne became and then overtook the Broncos as the NRL’s glamour club. Bennett opposed wrestling. Rassling, he calls it.

He spoke for the good of the game when he spoke out against wrestling and its negative impact on the game.

Bellamy knew the Broncos had also had a wrestling coach for years and saw hypocrisy in Bennett’s comments given the criticism emerged only once the Storm did it better.

The cool breeze in their conversations then turned to ice when Alex McKinnon was injured in Melbourne.

In a way, it straightened both up. The anger was intense but soon got to a point where the wounds were beyond superficial.

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Nothing is too unusual about this. The NRL is filled with slights and feuds.

Robinson and Green’s relationship is much healthier and in some ways far less rugby league. They are still competitive.

Green was Robinson’s assistant when the Roosters won the premiership in 2013 and moved to the Cowboys the following season.

Robinson’s regard for his former coaches was shown earlier this season when Jason Taylor was sacked at Wests Tigers and he immediately gave him an assistant’s job on staff.

It’s a bond formed that first season, three green coaches out to conquer the world.

The Roosters were coming off a low base, 13th the season before, and midway through the 2013 season Robinson realised he had a team capable of winning the big one.

Robinson was good, even necessary, for Green’s development.

Green was always an above-average intellect.

He showed early potential as a coach. Robinson recruited him after back to back premierships with Wynnum-Manly in the Queensland Intrust Super Cup.

The Roosters pushed through and took the premiership and, like he always does with his players, Robinson undertook a club review and within the assessments was an honest look at the coaching performance.

For the small coaching staff, it was an honest look at each other.

Soon after, Green left for the Cowboys with Robinson’s blessing.

It’s a comfort that allows Robinson to praise his opposition’s key player. A respect earned and untainted.