Paul Kent: Wayne Bennett’s recruiting tactics exposed in battle for Cameron Munster
Wayne Bennett has often said the best coaches are the best recruiters and his pursuit of Storm star Cameron Munster has forced him to dig deep into his bag of tricks, writes PAUL KENT.
NRL
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The great pity of life in the NRL is most of the fun to be had lives in the backrooms, where the lights are dim and entry is forbidden for the garden variety fan.
The politics of the game are at least as fascinating as anything that can happen on the field and, as the years roll on by, increasingly so. It has to do with either age or the cookie-cutter football they play nowadays.
Or, maybe it is the realisation the backrooms are where premierships are really won and lost.
Wayne Bennett is long ago on the record as saying the best coaches are the best recruiters, which is kind of hiding it in plain sight, and yet, with that in mind, it makes it easier to understand the hijinks that went on this week.
For background, Bennett was hired to head the NRL’s new 17th franchise next season, in large part because the NRL itself urged the Dolphins – who had settled on Paul Green originally – to sign Bennett because they believed he had a little Pied Piper in him to attract players.
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While the Dolphins have made some handy recruitments, it hasn’t worked out as planned and the club has yet to land the marquee player they thought they would by now.
And so, with each name missed and the marquee pool getting smaller, the Dolphins have increasingly been cornered into having to sign Cameron Munster in a bid to make good on their early promises.
On Monday, he was considered the last-man standing.
Then we got a glimpse inside the backroom when Braith Anasta flew to Melbourne on Tuesday for a meeting with Storm chairman Matt Tripp, chief executive Justin Rodksi and his prize colt Munster.
For many months now Munster has had one leg out of Melbourne after the Storm low-balled their contract extension, hoping to retain Munster for about two-thirds of what he is currently earning.
The reasons why are believed to be in relation to Munster’s troubled off-season and his fading form last year when, it was noticed, he was playing with a little extra padding around the middle and a mind that was elsewhere.
Apparently he wasn’t skipping dessert, as well as a few other things.
Munster looked at the low offer and told Tripp he would politely say no and back himself, which he has done exceptionally well, something Tripp acknowledged on Tuesday.
With each round it became clear that the one player Melbourne could not afford to lose, having invested in all those around him, was Munster.
So Tuesday the Storm upped their offer and Munster, according to Anasta, walked away pleased.
Yet seemingly before Anasta’s plane landed in Sydney, the Dolphins were mounting a tactical challenge that had to be admired for its audacity, although not entirely original.
A story was leaked to the Courier Mail that the Dolphins were interested in Latrell Mitchell, of all people.
By some stroke of coincidence, it was in response to what appeared to be a glib comment from Mitchell himself, part of his evolution from footy player to all-round entertainer, when he was asked if he would consider joining the Dolphins if they missed out on Munster.
“I can’t be second choice,” Mitchell said.
This little quirk, Mitchell answering a direct question, gave the Dolphins deniability.
It also gave Bennett the ability to repeat his often-repeated stance that he does not pilfer his former clubs.
The last time it happened was the day he was announced as Dolphins coach, in October last year, when he was asked whether he would look at signing any Souths players, which warranted a dismissive sigh from the old coach.
“Go and have a look at all the players I’ve taken from clubs I’ve left,” he said.
“South Sydney, for example, Jaydn Su’A and Pat Mago were cast out by the Broncos. Darius Boyd followed me for a decade because the Broncos didn’t want him. I have no history of taking major players from any club.”
With Souths he has a point but, as we know, part of the fun is the trickery that exists.
Shortly after Bennett arrived in Newcastle for 2011, his St George Illawarra tracksuits now mothballed, the welcome mat slipped out for former Dragons Darius Boyd (2011), Neville Costigan (2011), Alex McKinnon (2012), Adam Cuthbertson (2012), Beau Scott (2013) and Jeremy Smith (2013).
Three internationals, an Origin player and one destined for both before tragedy. Claim it as a coincidence if you like, but there is a pattern.
As far back as when Bennett left Canberra after the 1987 season, to coach the Broncos in their inaugural season, he lured Peter Jackson and Sam Backo, both internationals, away from the Raiders for the 1989 season and a year later signed Kevin Walters, also from the Raiders, who was an Origin player by then. He might have whispered an offer to at least one other.
No doubt the Raiders considered them major players, as did the Dragons officials who privately seethed.
Of course, Bennett wouldn’t be the poker player he is if he was always showing his cards.
Earlier this year Bennett said the Dolphins had no interest in Reece Walsh.
“I’m not sure where it’s come from but I can assure you he hasn’t even been mentioned,” Bennett said February 9.
By July 6 it was reported the Dolphins had complained to the NRL about the Warriors releasing Walsh to Brisbane with a clause contained in his release that specifically stopped Walsh going to the Dolphins. Maybe it changed in the meantime.
It is not only Bennett who plays the game. It’s just that for a long time he was the best at it, partly because of what was his reputation for truth.
As it has got harder to recruit, though, more cards held in the hands were naturally exposed and tactics revealed.
The interest in Mitchell came within hours of the Storm arriving with a competitive offer for Munster, enough to challenge what the Dolphins had tabled after months of negotiating.
Hurry up and take the money, the timing of it all seemed to be saying, or else Mitchell might swoop in late and steal the loot.
Then on Thursday came news that Munster was about to turn his back on the millions on offer at the Dolphins to stay in Melbourne, which surprised even Munster.
The backroom games never end and it is fun to shine a light on them every once in a while.
Couldn’t do it forever, though.
SHORT SHOT
Gairy St Clair is one of the quiet tigers of Australian boxing.
When the list of Johnny Lewis’s world champions are assembled St Clair is never the first fighter mentioned but there is no doubt he gave the trainer some of his fondest memories in the sport.
He beat South African Cassius Baloyi for the IBF super-featherweight title in South Africa in 2006 in a fight where his bravery was never properly recognised.
By then he was beginning to lose the battle on the scales, which contributed to him losing the title in his next fight before he suffered another loss, to Baloyi, in a title eliminator.
St Clair tried to make the climb back by moving up to lightweight, with a dangerous fight against a young Englishman named Amir Khan who was close to a national hero after winning gold at the Athens Olympics four years earlier.
I was living in London and called Johnny for a catch-up, who told me he was one short in the corner and to get across London to ExCel Arena for the fight.
There are few moments like it in sport.
Some time later I saw St Clair and he laughed at my efforts.
“You didn’t say a word the whole fight,” he said, the first time I’d ever been accused of that.
Truth is nothing needed to be said.
What small instruction he needed was given by Lewis and, with that in his ear, St Clair went out and fought as bravely and intelligently as any man ever fought.
He was outmatched on the night but not once did he look for a way out or for an excuse, or shirk his instructions.
More gets revealed about a man in defeat than in victory, as in defeat he has given everything he has.
That night the fighter in St Clair was there to see and, last night, it was honoured properly when he was inducted into the Australian Boxing Hall of Fame.
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