Darius Boyd: The one thing Wayne Bennett got wrong at the Broncos
It was a long and trusting relationship between Darius Boyd and Wayne Bennett in the NRL, but the former Broncos skipper has revealed the one thing his mentor got wrong at Red Hill.
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The season is drawing ever closer to a close and while the Queensland teams won’t be playing finals, there’s still plenty going on around the clubs.
Robert Craddock looks at the hits and misses of the week, and the latest off-field news doing the rounds.
BOOZE BUSTER
Wayne Bennett’s shrewd guidance of Souths during the COVID era has proven him a master of adaptability – but no one’s perfect.
In his candid autobiography Battling The Blues, Darius Boyd reveals the one off-field decision Bennett got wrong.
Boyd wrote the season after the Broncos won the 2006 premiership the team got carried away with their fame and the free drinks that came with it and would often have three big nights on the town each week, sometimes sleeping in until midday.
Bennett sniffed trouble and made a decision that the players were only allowed one night out but that only prompted “a powder keg waiting to blow’’ as players made a monster of the one night they were allowed out.
“It was one of Wayne’s few decisions on player behaviour that did not have the desired impact,’’ Boyd wrote, but it must be said that Bennett’s ability to keep his team relaxed and happy was a strength then and remains so.
TOO COMPLEX
Here’s a tip for NRL coaching candidates … stop the fancy talk. It’s costing you jobs.
The whisper from more than one panellists interviewing candidates for NRL coaching roles is today’s candidates are over-complicating the game and trying to baffle people with science.
One candidate finished his interview on a zoom conference and the instant he hung up, one of the panellists said, “I had no idea what he was on about.’’
Naturally he missed the job.
LIONS ROAR
The Broncos don’t have to look for to find a model for their next coaching set-up ... it’s just across the Story Bridge.
There is a feeling that if Kevin Walters gets the job, the Lions model of having Chris Fagan as a the genial senior coach and no-nonsense football manager David Noble cracking the whip in the background is one the Broncos could and should follow.
There are similarities with Fagan and Walters in that Fagan had never been an AFL head coach until he took on the Lions at 55 while Walters, at 52, is untried in the NRL even though he is a four-year State of Origin coach.
But mainly it is the contrasting yet perfectly compatible chemistry of Fagan and Noble which has caught the Broncos eye for they are determined to place the right support staff around the coach following the realisation that Anthony Seibold became isolated.
HOOK’S HOOK
Anthony Griffin has not applied for a return to the Broncos coaching role but we hear he is watching proceedings with great interest.
The cruel thing about coaching is the wiser a man gets on his journey the fewer chances he often gets.
Griffin had a solid record at the Broncos and was on course for a top-four finish at Penrith before he was brutally sacked.
He has much time to reflect on those roles and the feeling is he would be a better coach now. The Dragons obviously think so because they called him back for a second interview late last week for the job of replacing Paul McGregor.
BACK HOME
Jamayne Isaako returns to Brisbane today following a marathon journey which was a tribute to his late father.
Isaako has spent four weeks in quarantine in Sydney and New Zealand after returning to New Zealand following the death of his father Taai in July after a battle with cancer. He may not play any of the Broncos final three games but is contracted to the Broncos for the next two seasons.
Originally published as Darius Boyd: The one thing Wayne Bennett got wrong at the Broncos