Wayne Bennett a victim of his own genius as Jamie Soward secures golden point win for St George Illawarra

WAYNE Bennett's team lost Thursday night. That's the Knights, by the way.

WAYNE Bennett's team lost Thursday night. That's the Knights, by the way.

It was difficult to tell in a crackling season-opener at Hunter Stadium, as Bennett's former team St George Illawarra beat his current one 15-14 in golden-point extra-time.

So efficient did the Dragons look, if you didn't know better you might've suspected Bennett was still in charge and not his former assistant Steve Price.

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Do you reckon Bennett was worried at the loss? Please. He didn't have to trawl back over decades of coaching experience to know how early life is at his new club. Just back to the first game at the helm of the Dragons, three years ago, in the season opener against Melbourne at Olympic Park.

"I went to the Dragons and we were beaten by Melbourne in the first game as well," Bennett said. "Exactly the same. We lost 17-16. That was three years ago now. It had all the similarities tonight. I can still remember the way we played that night - we played like these blokes here tonight.

"Lots of courage, having a real dig. We didn't have the class that Melbourne had. But at the end of the year we had it. It's a work in progress here."

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It took Bennett two seasons to break the Dragons' 31-year premiership drought - and even then nothing was guaranteed.

For all the premature talk about premierships in Tinkler Town - although billionaire owner Nathan Tinkler is thinking top four for now - the mastercoach sees the bigger picture.

"We didn't come here (tonight) with any expectation as a team other than to show that we're a work in progress right now," Bennett said. "That's what I felt tonight: we're a work in progress."

Is he relieved for the pressure of the first game to have been released?

"I don't feel relief," he replied. "I don't buy into that anyway. I know what's in front of us.

"We're not a one-game team. It wasn't about blasting off here tonight. We were playing against a really good team, and it was about staying with them and competing with them."

Surely Bennett would've noted the irony in Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward landing the killer blow, slotting a 25m field goal with 23 seconds remaining in the first period of extra-time.

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It was Bennett who believed in the flighty little five-eighth when not many others did and then turned him into a premiership winner.

There's been speculation that Soward's head dropped the moment Bennett left the scene, and it's been noticed in his commitment to pre-season training. Indeed, Soward is under the blowtorch: to not just keep the Dragons firing, but retain a NSW jumper many believe he shouldn't be allowed to wear again.Yet there were signs last night that the belief Bennett has shown him is still there, his own self-belief.

It was there in so much of what all of the Dragons did, maybe with the exception of some rare expansive footy.

"I've got the upmost respect for Wayne," Price said afterwards. "He has been a hell of a mentor for me. The steel is still there, but we're a new team."

Said Dragons captain Ben Hornby: "Most people have us finishing out of the eight. We still think we're pretty good."But just as Bennett is writ large over his former team, there were enough glimpses in Bennett's side to know things will turn.

Halfback Jarrod Mullen's try late in the first half, after he scooted down the blindside from dummy half from 30m out to score, was a classic opportunistic try from a confident halfback.

That's what Bennett can do. He can unlock unrealised potential, or find potential that had gone missing. And the things he teaches stay with them forever.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 15 (M Cooper B Morris tries J Soward 3 goals J Soward field goal) bt NEWCASTLE 14 (J McManus J Mullen tries K Gidley 3 goals) in golden-point extra time at Hunter Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Ashley Klein. Crowd: 29,189

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