NRL grand final 2021: How Wayne Bennett has shown up rookies in coaching wars
Wayne Bennett is set for a season out of the frontline but a few sharp words delivered against his former club, the Broncos, have made him an unbackable favourite for his next job.
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Phil Gould once said that in all of his coaching battles against Wayne Bennett he could not recall being caught by surprise … but that didn’t make life any easier.
“Coaching against Bennett is not an intellectual battle,’’ Gould told News Corp.
“You know what you are going to get. His players are fit. They play for 80 minutes. They always defend well. They play for each other. They only have one or two plays but they do them relentlessly and they believe in them.
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“When you play Bennett it is a battle of wills.’’
What does it say about modern rugby league coaching that Bennett is blazing a path to glory on the back of basic beliefs that have served him well for almost 40 years?
It’s obvious, isn’t it? A lot of modern theories and methods are overrated and simply not as important as timeless truths like keeping things simple, playing for each other and playing for the coach.
Just over a year ago there was a coaching position up for grabs in the NRL where there were several ambitious mentors, including one from England, interviewed for the job.
On paper they had solid credentials but when they left the zoom room a couple of long-serving internationals on the interview panel said things like “I couldn’t understand that gobbledygook … what on earth are they on about?’’
They were making a simple game complex. That is what they were on about.
When Bennett took over at South Sydney one of the first things he did was tell players not to bother about carrying pens and paper around to take notes about meetings which they had previously been encouraged to do.
He just knew it wasn’t their bag.
“Simple and direct are probably the two best words to describe him,’’ Souths captain Adam Reynolds said of Bennett.
Paul “Fatty’’ Vautin believes league’s urge to complicate things has swept into the commentary box where some younger commentators can revert to coach speak when, he senses, the fans just prefer it to be simple and straight.
Bennett’s unbroken 34-year stint at NRL level will end after Sunday’s grand final against Penrith when he will return to Brisbane and is set to be offered coaching duties for the 17th team set to enter the NRL competition in 2023.
He was already an unbackable favourite to land the role and the odds could have only shortened after he took aim at Broncos officials on Friday night, claiming they tried to undermine his negotiations with Souths.
New teams need to be any flavour but vanilla. They need selling points and drama and Bennett versus the Broncos would have it all.
You can just imagine the outcry if the new team stole a couple of the Broncos’ key players.
The rivalry would be ablaze … and that’s before anyone has made a tackle.
From the vault: Rare photos reveal other side of Bennett
They were the photos that belonged to another world … and another Wayne.
Wayne Bennett’s extraordinary unbroken run of 34 years as an NRL head coach will end when South Sydney finish their premiership campaign this year. But that is only part of the Bennett story.
Before that run there were police duties and protests, a playing career that took him to Australian honours as a beanstalk winger or fullback, some topsy-turvy results as coach.
In searching for some offbeat moments and memories, we went deep into the bowels of the News Corp library in Brisbane and found and a once white, now yellowing envelope packed with long forgotten photos of Bennett.
There’s a Wayne hug for a random giant banana, a bended knee for a comedian impersonating the Queen and a choreographed dive for an imaginary try for the cameras at training. It seemed like a lighter, less intense world … probably because it was.
ARISE SIR WAYNE
Cricket great Ian Botham once stormed out of a function in protest against comedian Gerry Connolly impersonating the Queen.
Bennett had no similar hang-ups and was “knighted’’ in February 1991 at a club function.
Not sure what he had done to deserve it though. The club’s first premiership did not arrive for another year.
SERGEANT WAYNE
Bennett once said that becoming a Queensland policeman taught him a lot about leadership, management and covering your mate’s back.
After leaving school in grade eight to help his mother pay the bills and working in the meatworks, his greatest challenge was simply getting into the force at age 15.
He managed to scrape through the entrance exam at a second attempt by memorising an entire essay on his great love … sport.
Most photos of Bennett as a policeman on the beat, such as this one at a street demonstration in 1978, are of a man looking slightly burdened by the anguish of the role and he has conceded there were times when he had to put a battler or two in the back of his paddy wagon he felt terrible about doing it.
LIGHTS, CAMERA …
In bygone eras, photographers used to go to rugby league training and ask players to do something spectacular which would make a decent picture. It always looked mildly contrived yet it somehow achieved the prime goal of every photo – to make you look at it.
Below is a 20-year-old Bennett, complete with fashionable sideburns and a part straighter than a goalpost, taking a break from police duties in Toowoomba and joining a Queensland training squad.
You can almost hear the snapper saying: “Now Wayne, we want the full dive and let’s look really happy about scoring a try.’’
THE EXPLORER
Long before the State of Origin went to Adelaide, Bennett’s Broncos popped down there for a historic clash with St George in May, 1992.
The Broncos won 20-18 against the side they would later meet in that year’s grand final and the crowd of 18,800 later prompted Super League officials to give the city its own team a few years later.
Bennett decided to watch the game with the punters and moved to a near head-on angle, which he occasionally liked to do to get a different perspective of the game.
THE ALFIE CONNECTION
Bennett has not coached Allan Langer for almost two decades yet they still talk every week, occasionally when the rest of us are sleeping.
Langer used to be regarded as the only player game enough to ring Bennett at 3am.
If he answered, Langer would press his luck further by saying, “wow, why are you awake Wayne? Have you just got home from a nightclub or something?’’
“I still occasionally ring him at that time, in fact, I did so a couple of weeks ago,’’ Langer said this week.
“If he doesn’t answer, he will call back in the morning. I think he realises I made him as a coach. But the thing about Wayne is he loves a laugh as much as anyone.’’
There is no limits for Langer when it comes to winding up Bennett.
A few years back when there was a report Bennett was going to marry his new partner, Langer got a pillow and a ring and walked stiff-legged past Bennett’s office at the Broncos pretending to be a page boy.
WAYNE GOES BANANAS
Long before first grade coaches became the most serious of souls, they often willingly hammed it up for the cameras in sponsorship photos.
Below, Benny The Banana meets Benny the Bronco at the launch of a three-year, six-figure sponsorship deal in 1990 which helped the Broncos statewide search for young talent.
What’s an awkward photo with a banana if it helps you find the next Steve Renouf?
COMPLEX TIES
“Well ... honestly ... if you blokes had followed the game plan ...’’
A long-time Broncos staffer once said Bennett was at his best after a loss “because he enjoyed the fact the teams needs him.’’
Below, Bennett is pictured after a Broncos loss with Chris Johns and Kevin Walters, with whom he has had a 45-year relationship, which has seen all colours.
Bennett was the key voice who told Kevin and twin Kerrod they needed to go to different clubs to grow, which they did, with Kevin joining Bennett at Canberra.
Kevin’s five Broncos premierships were all under Bennett.
Later, he was hired then fired by Bennett as an assistant coach then rehired at Newcastle when he and Bennett flatted together, going through years when they barely spoke to others where they were incredibly close.
A KEY STEAK-HOLDER
The Queensland Rugby League Club was keen to remind patrons of the quality of their steaks the day before the first interstate match against NSW in 1972. So they got reserves Phil Braithwaite and Bennett to pose with some of their finest offerings.
LEAN AND MEAN
Even before he was a fitness instructor in the Queensland police force, Bennett always put a premium on being fit.
Much like his protege Craig Bellamy, Bennett often used to take part in early season fitness runs with his teams and, if he beat players home, the result would be an instant wake-up for them.
Even when he arrived at South Sydney aged 68, his gym sessions impressed the players.
SWAPPING IDEAS
Whether it was from another NRL code or outside his sport or even outside sport itself, Bennett was always on the lookout for new ideas.
Below, he talks with former Brisbane Lions coach Robert Walls, who like Bennett was a great believer in getting his teams physically hard.
THE GOAL-KICKER
Goal-kicking was a different sort of craft back in Bennett’s day, where the old-fashioned toe-poke was the standard fare.
The ball would be hit on its end and would occasionally go laser straight but any slight miscalculation would have dire consequences.
The old Adidas boots and Steeden football were iconic features of the time.
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