The Wayne Bennett coaching saga can’t hide the Broncos’ woeful form ahead of the NRL finals
IT’S fine for Broncos players to turn up to Wayne Bennett’s house for a feed. But if they really want to make a statement of support, it’s about time they did it on the field, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.
Opinion
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IT’S fine for the Broncos players to turn up to Wayne Bennett’s house for a feed. Any danger they could turn up in a game?
Over the years Bennett has been the master at taking the pressure off his troops with some strategically timed pot-stirring that made him, rather than his players, the lightning rod for public scrutiny.
This season it’s the same but different. Bennett is taking the heat but this time it’s because of a bushfire raging out of control, rather than a selective burn-off.
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There has been so much talk about Bennett’s future it has masked the modest efforts of his team who, like their coach, appear to be a bit all over the shop at the moment.
“The boys have been wonderful,’’ Bennett said on Wednesday, but the truth is they haven’t.
Tolerant and sympathetic maybe of the breakdown in relations between Bennett and chief executive Paul White.
But if the players truly want to make a statement of support for Bennett, the place to do it is not over a fireside chat at the coach’s house but on the field.
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The Broncos negative points for and against ratio is damning evidence of a season which desperately craves an upset result against the Rabbitohs.
There has been so much talk about Bennett’s future that it has overshadowed the fact the final verdict may be shaped by whether he can cajole some spirit and fight from his players in the last two months of the season.
No rugby league punter would ever have predicted that with three rounds to play, the Broncos would be in a low-level shootout with the Wests Tigers for the last spot in the top eight.
The same Wests Tigers were the popular pick to be wooden spooners at the start of the season after losing a string of senior players.
Take a trip to the Tigers training venue at Concord Oval and you realise how spoiled the Broncos players really are.
The ground famously hosted Australia’s last match of the 1987 World Cup against France but quickly faded from view and the Tigers share it with the North Harbour Rugby Club.
It has become a tired relic of a bygone era, a stunning contrast to the Broncos’ stunning state of the art training facility at Red Hill with its massive video screen which replays scenes of Broncos grand final triumphs behind a trophy wall which parades the club’s premiership silverware.
Bennett prides himself on fixing his teams back to front, with defence a key priority.
The famous defensive resolve that carried the Broncos to the 2015 grand final against the Cowboys has evaporated to the point where Brisbane have conceded 118 more points this year than at the same point in 2015.
Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima have blown hot and cold all season and it’s true that they look too much like the same player to gel.
But even if Brisbane solves its halves woes overnight, if they don’t improve their defence they will have plenty of time for barbecues next month, because they might not be required to play finals football.
Originally published as The Wayne Bennett coaching saga can’t hide the Broncos’ woeful form ahead of the NRL finals