David Furner is not the only NRL coach under pressure

IN 1987, Don Furner gave Wayne Bennett a big coaching break. He brought Bennett down from Brisbane to be his co-coach with the Canberra Raiders.

IN 1987, Don Furner gave Wayne Bennett a big coaching break. He brought Bennett down from Brisbane to be his co-coach with the Canberra Raiders. Canberra would go on to make the grand final that year.

Bennett never looked back. He is now rugby league's greatest coach. How ironic then that Don Furner's son, David, will travel to Newcastle this week and face up to Bennett in a match that could well determine his own coaching career.

If Bennett wasn't under so much pressure, he might be tempted to give Furner a break of his own.

That's why the big story won't be Furner when the Knights take on the Raiders this Saturday night.

It will be Bennett.

The Tinkler-Bennett era at Newcastle began with locals asking how many comps they were about to win. The questions now have nothing to do with premiership victories, but rather a simple: 'What's going on?'

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That's why you're seeing the strain on Wayne's face. Hard work and tough decisions have never been a problem for Bennett.

But this is different.

He appears to be at a loss to unearth exactly what is wrong with this football team. In the pre-season, the Knights trained harder and prepared better than ever before.

Kurt Gidley, a man who would be in the top five fittest individuals in the game, spoke of the fitness sessions with genuine horror. He said he'd never been fitter.

Ask any of the Broncos or Dragons and they'll tell you no coach works his players harder during the summer months than Wayne Bennett. The players spoke about the quality of their ball work, the confidence in the squad and the aura of the coach.

When the Knights ran out on the opening night of the season to take on the Dragons at Hunter Stadium, I didn't expect miracles. But I did expect them to explode out of the gates from the outset.

Instead they looked tired, lethargic and lacked any sort of spark in attack.

Thirteen rounds in, nothing at all has changed.

After observing plenty of Bennett press conferences over the years, I've always had the feeling that the more confident Wayne feels the less he talks. In the last few weeks he has done a lot of talking.

After the Knights' shocking performance in their loss to the Titans a fortnight ago, Bennett did something I don't think I've ever seen him do before. He referred to his playing group as "them". He spoke of how embarrassed he was of "their" performance.

Bennett has always prided himself on protecting his players. This was unlike him.

Then after the Broncos loss Bennett felt the need to explain what he was doing and what his plans were for the Newcastle club. I've never seen Wayne feel the need to explain any of his methods to anyone, let alone a press conference.

The Broncos game was an interesting one. After the Titans loss, Bennett reportedly threw out all high-tech training devices and methods and just had the Knights return to a good old-fashioned week of hard work.

Plenty of sweat and a little bit of blood in search of an answer - a proven method.

On top of that the Knights were challenged by the club's greatest player, Andrew Johns.

Joey's a funny one. No former player deserves to wield a big stick more, but getting a strong opinion out of Andrew is like trying to coax him into shouting at the bar. It requires a lot of cunning and prompting.

So when Andrew labelled the Knights' players performance against the Gold Coast as "hopeless, inept and disgraceful", I felt confident that their Brisbane performance would mark a turnaround in the club's poor season.

A sign at Suncorp stadium from a Knights fan said it all perfectly: "Where's the passion?"

Yet, 20 minutes in they found themselves 24-0 down. Hopeless, inept, disgraceful. Wayne must have been at a loss of what to do next.

To their credit they fought back hard, showed some fight and were in a position to win. But under pressure with the result on the line, Newcastle came undone badly before the Broncos demolished them in the final 15 minutes.

And what of Nathan Tinkler? What was he thinking? That must be adding to the strain as well.

Bennett has dealt with plenty of big and overbearing personalities in the past, but not many like the big mining magnate and former Muswellbrook Rams front-rower. Tinkler has proven that he can do two things very, very well - make money and sack people.

When the Knights lose, Tinkler doesn't try to hide his pain and anguish from the players or the coach in the sheds afterwards. One former Knights player said that during a post-match team address by Bennett earlier this year, the players sat nervously with one eye on the coach and one eye on the owner, who was hovering with intent.

But I have no doubt Bennett is strong enough to handle Tinkler. So let's revert to Wayne's greatest challenge - fixing his squad.

This is a team that has only reached the final four twice in the past decade, and that was with Andrew Johns steering the ship. The core of this playing group, who have worn the red and blue during the past five or six years, have dealt with very little expectation or big game pressure.

Bennett's arrival at Newcastle was seen as a blessing, but to some it appears too much. Too much expectation and too much pressure.

When you get Wayne Bennett, that's what you get: expectation and pressure. When you're winning, it's a story. When you're losing, it's a big story.

When David Furner walks into Hunter Stadium this Saturday night, he's not the only one with his future in the balance.

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