The tricks Wayne Bennett plays to control message from press conferences

WAYNE Bennett has always been portrayed as a master of manipulation and the rugby league supercoach just got away with another masterclass.

Cold blooded.

OPINION

WAYNE Bennett, you magnificent bastard.

Hidden somewhere beneath the sensational message of how Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga inadvertently cost the Broncos top spot on the NRL ladder, there was brief recognition Brisbane lost a game of football to the Cronulla Sharks.

The architect of this masterclass of misdirection was none other than Broncos supercoach Bennett.

He got away with another one.

His prickly public persona is only part of the fascinating character that is the best coach in the NRL.

The 66-year-old is an artist of media manipulation and his performance in front of the microphones at Southern Cross Group Stadium on Sunday afternoon was another pearler.

Instead of discussing his team’s poor performance in its top-four blockbuster, it’s so much more exciting to question the impact the trans-Tasman Test team announcements had on the Broncos’ performance.

With his team surrendering top spot on the table, Bennett clicked into gear to divert attention away from his side’s sluggish first-half surrender to the Sharks.

The Duke.

When asked if the Test side announcement last week before round nine kicked-off hurt his team’s focus, Bennett seized upon the sideshow offering.

“I’m not going to make excuses today, but I was pretty disappointed when they announced the team this week,” Bennett said in the post-match media conference.

“I’ve been a long-time coach and I just know the impact that has on guys. We have nine guys — with one going to Tonga — we haven’t done that before and it’s just not good. Particularly with guys like Josh McGuire who have never played for Australia before.

“Corey (Parker) has a lot of jerseys, but it only takes two or three guys like him to be off a little bit in this competition and you’re under a fair amount of pressure.

“It’s not the reason we lost here today, but it’s part of the fact why we were probably a little bit flat.”

His response was the Bennett equivalent of an academic thesis compared to the gruff one-word answers the man is famous for.

Then came a follow-up question about if he could tell his representative stars were flat before Sunday’s contest. He gobbled it up.

“I addressed them yesterday,” he said.

Complete control.

“I kept the Australian and New Zealand players back in the room yesterday and I told them that I knew what was going on with them. I tried to help them out with how they could handle it better mentally.”

Parker, sitting alongside Bennett, had no idea why he and his teammates were not as desperate as Cronulla — but he didn’t think representative honours had anything to do with it.

“We’re all professionals at the end of the day,” he said.

“We have a job to do and we didn’t turn up in that first half. I don’t think it had anything to do with what happened during the week. Everyone has a different opinion on it.”

Here’s why Bennett’s opinion is the one that is being heard.

It’s not his first rodeo.

Long-term rugby league scribe Steve Mascord wrote the definitive rundown of how to interpret Bennett’s press-conference behaviour — and immediately you can see the genius in the St George Illawarra premiership-winning coach’s work.

Mascord’s piece from 2010, when Bennett was at the Dragons — known as the Wayne Bennett for Dummies guide — reported Bennett has eight simple principles he uses to control how his team is reported on.

Here is a truncated version:

1. When his team wins he says very little to ensure his players get the attention.

2. When his team loses he gives expansive answers and happily discusses side issues to deflect attention from his players’ performance.

3. When his team plays poorly he will only praise players in need of a confidence boost.

4. The first questions of a press conference always get a short answer so he can show who is in charge.

5. Bennett is on first-name basis with at least one local reporter. Unknown reasons.

6. Unless contractually obliged, Bennett only does one-on-one interviews with the ABC — all other digital media miss out.

7. Bennett gives up a lot of his time to help journalists working on feature stories. But he won’t go anywhere near providing on-the-record quotes for a journalist chasing a news story.

8. Once a year Bennett tells his club it’s time for his annual one-on-one media day when he holds court. It’s normally a distraction at a time in the season when his players are under pressure.

This is the hidden genius behind the great man and it happens every week.