Wayne Bennett’s survival guide to coaching in the NRL
YOU can’t help wonder if Jason Taylor’s career would still be alive if he had access to this sound coaching philosophy, writes PAUL CRAWLEY.
NRL
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WESTS Tigers board and management, here’s some free advice, first given to Wayne Bennett 31 years ago.
Long before Bennett coached his way to seven premierships, he was a rookie in the big league when he delivered words of wisdom from his coaching partner at Canberra, Don Furner senior.
This was 1987.
Bennett had asked how Furner went about building Canberra from the worst squad when joining the comp in 1982 into a grand final outfit six years later.
“When you sack a player,” Furner told Bennett, “make sure you have a better one to replace him. If you can’t do that, hang on to the one you have.”
Look at what happened to Jason Taylor this week. You can’t help wonder if his career would still be alive if he had access to Furner’s sound, philosophy.
Like Taylor, Bennett has been copping heat all year.
People are saying the 67-year-old has lost his aura, lost the dressing shed.
Then you watch the Broncos play their three games this season.
Whatever the old coach is saying is obviously still working.
I put my hand up, I’ve always been a Bennett fan.
These days, I get the feeling I’m in the minority.
No, Bennett isn’t a saint.
But also not the only coach who has fallen out with some former players, or rival coaches. Or had a marriage breakup in his life.
Yet for his flaws, he is still a great coach.
That’s the point here today, to reflect on what went wrong for one coach, and so right for another.
Bennett has been coaching almost as long as 46-year-old Taylor has been alive.
He was handed his first gig at the Queensland Police Academy in 1973, not two years after Taylor was born.
Bennett progressed to Brisbane Souths in 1977, before taking on that Canberra co-coaching role a decade later.
When the Broncos run out against the Raiders on Friday night, it will mark Bennett’s 765th game since he coached against Jack Gibson’s Cronulla team in round one, 1987.
All up, that’s 44 years and counting, 31 years uninterrupted in the national competition.
Not even registering all those representative matches for Queensland, Australia, New Zealand, England and the All Stars.
A lot of visits to that dressing shed Bennett supposedly lost this year.
And going back to Furner’s philosophy.
Taylor drew his line in the sand the moment he decided Robbie Farah wasn’t wanted.
Whatever the reason, that decision ultimately sealed Taylor’s fate.
Taylor wasn’t the first Tigers coach to lose support of this playing group.
You just knew trouble was brewing when Tim Sheens, the only man to ever have success at the joint venture, also fell out.
Then Mick Potter.
But after watching what happened previously, Taylor chose a dangerous path.
Especially given the Tigers didn’t have a better replacement for Farah, and had to pay him a truckload to go.
Now the club also has to pay Taylor.
Just as it did Sheens, and a conga line of others.
Bad business decisions led from the board down.
Even Bennett would have struggled in such a divisive environment.
Coaching is such a cutthroat business that you need all levels working together.
That is what the Tigers board, management, and players must now understand before the next coach is appointed.
The stats show just how hard it is to last, let alone succeed. Since Bennett’s first season at Canberra, 107 coaches have come and gone.
Of those, only 41 coached more than 100 games, 17 more than 200. Taylor, 140 games, surprisingly ranks the 25th-longest survivor in that period.
To put Bennett’s tally of 764 games in perspective, Sheens is the closest on 669 games. Brian Smith made it to 601, Bob Fulton 405 and the great Gibson 394.
Craig Bellamy is on 371, Des Hasler 340 and Friday night’s rival Ricky Stuart 323.
Remember, Bennett had 15 years coaching in Queensland before he started in the national comp.
What Bennett has accomplished will probably never be matched.
Yet his critics question if he would have achieved a portion of his success if he wasn’t coaching the Broncos for so long, forgetting the premiership he also won at the Dragons, who hadn’t won a comp since 1979.
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But what comes first, the chicken or the egg?
A good coach can only succeed under strong leadership. Which Bennett has been fortunate to have throughout his career.
Coincidentally, in 1979 Bennett was coaching Souths in Brisbane.
Against the odds, Souths won their semi-final when Bennett asked the club to get in contact with Gibson.
The following week Gibson arrived at training with a motivational video and some magic dust.
After determining that his job with the players was done, Gibson delivered one final message.
“You will win this week, son,” Gibson told Bennett, “but I won’t be here to help you the week after ... you might be in a bit of trouble.”
As Gibson predicted, Souths won the preliminary final, but went down in the grand final.
Though big Jack might be surprised that greenhorn Queenslander would have survived more than four decades in the job.
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