Wayne Bennett coaches South Sydney remotely while in COVID-19 isolation
While the NRL has banished Wayne Bennett from South Sydney’s NRL bubble, the super coach has still found a way to creep back inside Rabbitohs’ inner-sanctum.
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Six months ago, Wayne Bennett wouldn’t have known what a Zoom meeting was.
Now he knows all he has to do is tap on the email link and, like magic, the game’s oldest coach can be anywhere he wants.
Even when he’s home sitting on the lounge.
So on Monday morning, while the NRL had banished Bennett from South Sydney’s bubble, he still found a way to burst back inside the Rabbitohs’ inner sanctum.
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And this time he wasn’t breaking COVID-19 protocols but coaching by remote.
From there, Bennett took centre stage as Souths’ preparations for Saturday’s clash against the Cowboys swung into action.
The team meeting was scheduled to run for an hour from 9am but was a little late for obvious reasons.
Then at 10.45 the players were out on the field for about an hour of playing games. No joke, there was dodge ball and a game they call flinch (where they throw the ball and if you flinch you’re out).
They also practised kicking soccer goals and finished it off by throwing 40m passes at a garbage bin.
It all looked like a lot of fun, though it was still hard to fathom how and why a professional sporting team would start its week this way.
Then it was lunch and home in time for an afternoon repeat of Australian Ninja Warrior.
Seriously, can you imagine this happening under Michael Maguire?
But it wasn’t as if they were all skipping out early because the boss was away.
In fact, knowing when to take the foot off the throttle has always been a big part of Bennett’s coaching success.
That and his ability to build relationships with his players, regardless of what those outside might be saying.
And their relationships are going to survive two weeks with a little bit of distance between them.
All coaches have different styles and it’s easy to mistake Bennett’s for being too lackadaisical for the modern game.
But it always has been, and remains, about how well a coach can deal with different personalities.
For instance, Greg Inglis was known to talk about what it was like playing under Tim Sheens in the Australian teams — and from breakfast Sheens would be full-on football, while all GI wanted to do was chill out.
Whereas Bennett sits down for lunch most days with the players but they rarely talk footy, just chew the fat and share a laugh.
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Maguire was famous for turning up early, mostly starting his days around 5am — and it worked for him because he won a competition.
But now they are saying at the Tigers that Maguire’s hard edge is burning them out.
Whereas Bennett has seven premierships and while some see his laid-back coaching as yet another sign of Bennett slowing up, he has been doing this for a long, long time.
The other factor that should not be underestimated now is that Bennett has tremendous trust in assistant Jason Demetriou.
They work great together and Demetriou often takes the lead.
But Bennett doesn’t have any insecurity about that because he also trusts his own ability.
And besides, Bennett was often away for a good few weeks during the middle of the season for State of Origin in his earlier years, so he knows how this works.
He will use it as a good freshen, while it gives Demetriou a chance to take on more responsibility.
Bennett makes no secret of the fact Demetriou is already involved in all the planning meetings because he will take over as the head coach at the end of next year.
But for now, Bennett remains the boss, even when he’s locked out of the bubble.