NRL Briefs: Lockyer exposes Bennett rift; Cowboys slam Bolton treatment; Hughes to replace Slater

They won premierships, Origins and internationals as star and coach but Darren Lockyer and Wayne Bennett aren’t on speaking terms.

You could feel the love back in the good old days.

Rugby league great Darren Lockyer has blamed the long drawn-out departure of Wayne Bennett from the Brisbane Broncos has been driven a wedge between the pair.

The 41-year-old Lockyer had some of his greatest moments under the tutelage of Bennett after winning four premierships as a partnership.

However, after the fiasco that dominated the first part of the off-season which led to Bennett being sensationally fired and former Rabbitohs coach Anthony Seibold brought in after a prolonged and destructive drama, there were bound to be some casualties.

Bennett landed on his feet at the Rabbitohs in the coaching swap but some in Brisbane haven’t forgotten or forgiven.

Lockyer said there had been “limited conversation” at The Courier-Mail’s season launch and said that he had texted Bennett on his 69th birthday but didn’t get “the best response”.

Darren Lockyer and Wayne Bennett had huge careers together.

Lockyer said he still isn’t on speaking terms with the coach regarded as one of the greatest ever.

The Broncos legend was part of the board of directors who Bennett forced to sack him after what he called a “circus”.

“We are not on great speaking terms but I wouldn’t expect us to be on great speaking terms with the way it all unfolded,” Lockyer said. “Over time I am sure we will cross paths and we will mend bridges.

“The outcome is that it has strained a great relationship between me and Wayne which is disappointing but at the same time I knew being in that position I was in as a board member, that there was potentially going to be a strained relationship as an outcome, but I am also of the belief that over time we will mend that.

“It has been tough. From the outset I envisaged there would be some strained relationships through it. It was highly emotional. It was played out in the media and was quite a circus there for a while. It is done now and we all have to move on.”

The position was tough for Lockyer with the former star saying his relationship with former teammate Kevin Walters was also damaged after he was bypassed in the coaching hunt.

But he is looking forward to seeing how Seibold’s new processes will help the club.

“Consistency is the biggest thing that Anthony is trying to drive into this squad and I think that was one of their biggest Achilles heels last year,” Lockyer said.

“It is a fresh approach and a fresh start so there is a lot of energy around at the moment with the young guys. Anthony has done a lot of research about best practice around the world so he brings a lot of science behind his philosophies and methods.”

Lockyer’s mentor always had his back during his career.

Lockyer said the decisions were made for the right reasons and although that soured some relationships, but he did what was best for the club.

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Seibold also explained how he gets the most out of players, and how a five-hour lunch with Gruen panellist Todd Sampson helped develop his coaching philosophy.

“When I first got the job at the Rabbitohs I contacted a guy called Todd Sampson,” he said at the NRL season launch.

“Todd’s on the board of Fairfax, he’s on the board at Qantas from my understanding, and he was a young CEO for a big advertising agency so I tracked him down.

“He didn’t know too much about rugby league, he certainly didn’t know who I was, and we went for lunch in Bondi — he lived close by there — and I just wanted to pick his brains for a few hours, he was a really creative type of person.

“And the thing I walked away with was this: When he got the job at the Leo Burnett advertising agency they took him across to New York and he presented to the organisation and the big bosses over there.

“Essentially his presentation came down to three things: People first, processes second and profit third. And the Americans said ‘that’s a great presentation Todd, we really want you to take on the role as CEO in Australasia there’s just one thing we want you to do’, and he said what’s that? And they said, ‘Well we want you to put number three up to the top and drop down one and two. And he said, ‘I’m not willing to do that. If I get number one and two sorted out I know we’re going to make a profit’.

“And the thing I’ve transferred to being a coach is if I think about what effective coaching looks like and what I am when I’m at my best as a coach it’s if I value the relationships with the players and the staff, and engage those people and develop the players and obviously try and come up with an effective game model, then competitive performances are going to be a result of those three things.”

GREEN SLAMS COWBOYS STARS’ PUNISHMENT

North Queensland premiership-winning coach Paul Green has slammed the NRL’s heavy punishment on veteran backrower Scott Bolton.

Green echoed the thoughts of Cowboys chairman Laurence Lancini by saying a 10-game ban for Bolton was “too harsh”.

Bolton was slapped with the sanction last week after the NRL announced a policy shift cracking down on bad off-field behaviour in the wake of several incidents involving players in the past few months.

Scott Bolton escaped conviction after pleading guilty to the common assault of a woman.

The 31-year-old was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond earlier this year after pleading guilty to common assault following an incident involving a woman at a Sydney pub last May.

Bolton’s punishment was halved after he agreed to address all 16 clubs during the NRL’s Magic Round in May.

“I thought that’s too harsh a penalty what they came up,” Green said. “Unfortunately the timing of it, he’s probably paid a heavier price than others simply because of the timing of what else has been going on in the game.” The Cowboys have reluctantly accepted Bolton’s sanction, although Lancini subsequently revealed he’d held a face-to-face meeting with NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg, ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie and NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks last Thursday to express his disappointment. Greenberg was sympathetic to the Cowboys’ position but stood by the sanction. “Clubs, quite rightfully, should always stand up for their players and I’d expect the Cowboys to do exactly that,” he said.

“My job is different to that. My job is to stand up for the game and where we feel sanctions are needing to be applied, we’ll do it and we’ll do it without fear or favour.”

— AAP

SLATER SUCCESSOR REVEALED

Jahrome Hughes is in the box seat to claim Billy Slater’s No. 1 NRL jersey for Melbourne as Storm youngster Scott Drinkwater is set to undergo surgery on a ruptured pectoral muscle.

Drinkwater is set to be sidelined for three months.

The 21-year-old was favoured to take the retired Slater’s fullback spot but he now appears to miss up to 12 weeks of action after he left the field in the Storm’s 14-6 trial loss to North Queensland.

Jahrome Hughes, the new Slater.

“It sounds like (Drinkwater) might have torn a pec and if that’s the case, he will require surgery and might be out for two or three months at least,” Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said on Saturday.

“That’s the diagnosis without having the scan.”

Hughes had also been in some doubt after not playing an NRL trial match since the All-Stars game but the Storm are now certain he will be fit for round one against Brisbane on March 14.

The New Zealander missed Saturday’s trial loss with a slight calf injury but he played at fullback five times for Melbourne last year for two tries and two try assists.

— AAP