Wayne Bennett v Craig Bellamy: The summer that changed the course of rugby league history

Former Raiders skipper Dean Lance recalls the moment Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy first crossed paths — and how it changed the course of rugby league history.

Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett. Picture: AAP

It’s a coaching rivalry that has been 35 years in the making — and this is how brutal honesty sessions helped change the course of rugby league history.

Dean Lance could not have envisaged the day Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy first met at Canberra’s pre-season training in the summer of 1986-87 that he would watch them become unquestionably two of the game’s finest coaches ever.

Lance was the Raiders’ skipper back then and months later led them onto the last grand final played at the SCG in one of the most unlikely season deciders we’ve seen.

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Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett will go head-to-head again when Storm clash with the Rabbitohs on Thursday night. Picture: AAP

The little-known Bennett, in NSW and the ACT at least, had come down from Brisbane to be co-coach with Don Furner. Foundation player Bellamy — one of Lance’s great mates to this day — was in his squad but made only six of his 148 first-grade appearances that season.

While a lot of people these days focus on the differences between the two, and how they have spectacularly fallen out over recent years, Lance still sees similarities in the pair — and explains why Bennett’s coaching helped define who Bellamy also became.

And as Bennett’s Rabbitohs and Bellamy’s Storm kick-off the 2021 season on Thursday night, pitching this phenomenal rivalry head first into the headlines again, Lance offers a perspective that perhaps few can provide.

He spoke about the pair’s incredible work ethic — but above all else, Bennett’s unique man management skills.

“Brutally honest,” was how Lance put the changes Bennett brought with him to the Raiders.

And without speaking out of school about exactly what was said behind closed doors, Lance went on to explain how Bennett could manipulate team meetings specifically to create ‘honesty sessions’.

Lance and Bennett would meet up prior to the team to discuss where each other wanted the conversation to go. Or more specifically, where Bennett determined it needed to go.

But Lance said what it really did was encourage all players to come out of their shells.

“And players could tell other players that they didn’t think they had a go,” Lance continued.

“And other players might not have liked it. But, hey, we sorted it out ... in the dressing room. And from that we became a better team.

“There was a fair bit of honesty and that was the biggest thing he brought to our joint.

Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett first met at the Raiders in 1986. Digital artwork: Boo Bailey

“Honesty. Fitness. We trained hard. And ended up loving each. That is why we ended up making a grand final in 1987 out of nowhere.”

And while Bennett only stayed that one season, Bellamy ended up working under him for five more back at the Broncos before taking over at the Storm in 2003.

Lance still recalls the day that also changed the fortunes of two clubs forever.

“I was at the Raiders and Craig rang me and said, ‘I’ve got an offer from the Wests Tigers, what do you reckon we do’,” Lance says.

“And I said, ‘mate, sounds pretty good’. And then he rang back the next day and said, ‘I’ve got an offer from the Storm, what do I do?’

“I was going to be with him as an assistant coach wherever he went.”

But as they say, the rest is now history.

This will be Bellamy’s first year without any of the ‘Big Three’, given Cameron Smith’s retirement.

Like many, I’ve often wondered over the years, did Bellamy make the careers of Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk — or did the ‘Big Three’ make Bellamy?

Lance has his theory: “The story has been told how Cameron Smith came to Melbourne.

“Now the greatest player ever. But he might not have been had Craig not called him into his office one day and told him to get his finger out and start training harder.

“You know, when Wayne came to Canberra he was as fit as. He used to run with us and kick our arse.

“And Craig was the same.

Craig Bellamy played 148 first grade games for the Raiders.

“It might have been ’88 after Wayne had left, but Craig ran that hard during pre-season that he stuffed his legs up … had to have two operations on shin splints.

“He just ran that hard on the road, which put him out for a while. But as soon as he got better he was back running and running … with the bandages still on his legs.

“It goes back to that relentless, honest work ethic, which comes from Wayne I’d imagine.”

Bellamy now stands alongside Bennett as the most successful current coaches in the NRL — and is second to Bennett in the all-time records when it comes to coaching in successive seasons.

Bennett at 35 and counting — and Bellamy 19, now passing Tim Sheens, another of his former Canberra coaches.

Bennett and Bellamy also have a combined 1335 NRL games between them and are makers of some of league’s greatest careers — Darren Lockyer, Allan Langer, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater among them.

Bennett is 71 and potentially in his last season as an NRL head coach. Bellamy is 61 and yet decide if he will coach on.

But regardless they will remain as influential and relevant as they ever were.

While Lance concedes 35 years ago he couldn’t have predicted the script, he’s not the least bit surprised.

LATRELL V SUAALII: WHO WINS RECRUITMENT WAR?

A lot has been made this pre-season about the tremendous talent that is Sydney Roosters teenage sensation Joseph Suaalii after his exceptional two-try arrival in the NSW Cup trial match for North Sydney.

And naturally, a lot of that focus then turned to South Sydney, and whether the Rabbitohs have dropped the ball big-time by allowing such a wonderfully gifted athlete to escape and join their arch rivals down the road at Bondi.

But after watching Latrell Mitchell in the recent Charity Shield smash-up of St George Illawarra, I’m starting to wonder if the Rabbitohs might end up getting the last laugh in this latest chapter of the Book of Feuds.

Latrell Mitchell is primed for a big season at South Sydney. Picture: Getty Images

Because ask yourself this heading into the new season that kicks off when Mitchell’s Bunnies tackle the Melbourne Storm on Thursday night: If both players were up for grabs right now, who would you want to sign first?

Would it be the 17-year-old Suaalii who seems like he could end up a Sonny Bill-type once-in-a-generation player but is yet to prove himself in the week-to-week grind of the NRL?

Or would it be Latrell who appears to have gone through his growing pains and, at 23, now seems finally ready to deliver on his own mind-blowing talent?

While we probably won’t know the conclusion to this story for at least another decade, it is going to be fascinating to watch it unfold.

Of course, Latrell needs to do more than perform to his potential every now and then to justify the early season hype.

But at this point it appears all those who were bagging Wayne Bennett’s decision last year to play Latrell at fullback might owe someone an apology soon.