Believe the hype: Why Bennett is firming for Dragons despite what he says

Sometimes it’s best to read the smoke signals when trying to make sense of what is fact from fiction.

Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett led the Dragons to their last premiership in 2010 Picture: AAP

Sometimes it’s best to read the smoke signals when trying to make sense of what is fact from fiction.

And while Wayne Bennett maintains he has not been approached by anyone at St George Illawarra to take over if Paul McGregor is sacked, the speculation just won’t go away.

While McGregor was given a stay of execution this week, there is no way he will be able to continue next year if he doesn’t turn the club’s fortunes around very soon, starting with Sunday’s showdown with arch rivals Cronulla.

Meanwhile, Bennett continues to be linked to a Red V return despite having a year to run on his South Sydney contract.

Bennett still has some powerful allies at the Dragons following his last visit when he gave the joint venture it’s only premiership in 2010.

It was also interesting to read Bennett’s comments last week in relation to why Brisbane made a critical mistake appointing Anthony Seibold ahead of his former Broncos and current Rabbitohs assistant Jason Demetriou.

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What this made crystal clear is that Bennett thinks Demetriou is ready to be a head coach.

But Bennett has also previously indicated he is not ready to retire, and will remain coaching for as long as he is physically capable of doing the job.

Bennett’s many critics continue to point out that the NRL’s most successful coach is now 70, and therefore becoming too old to remain in charge at the elite level.

But if you ignore Bennett’s age and focus on his recent results, Fox Sports Stats show that Bennett still remains up with Craig Bellamy and Trent Robinson with the best strike rates of all coaches.

Fox Sports Stats show since 2015 Bellamy’s winning record is 73.18 per cent, ahead of Shane Flanagan (63.80), Bennett (62.5) and Robinson (62.22).

Since 2018 Bennett still ranks behind only Bellamy and Robinson of coaches who remain employed.

Bellamy still has the best strike rate (72.41%) ahead of Robinson (70.68%), Anthony Griffin (65%), Flanagan (62.96%) and Bennett (58.92%).

But during this period Griffin and Flanagan both coached less than half as many games.

Below this group it goes Des Hasler (56.66%), Ricky Stuart (54.54%), Anthony Seibold (53.57%) and Ivan Cleary (50%) as the only coaches with a better than 50 per cent winning record.

McGregor comes in 14th at 44.44 per cent, although his strike rate has dipped dramatically over the last 12 months.

Bennett was being coy when asked about the speculation ahead of the Rabbitohs’ clash against Gold Coast.

Asked if it was his intention to see out his Souths contract, Bennett said: “Every time there is a problem at a club I seem to be going to it. They had me at five before I left the Broncos.”

Bennett is right in that his name was linked to many clubs but ultimately he ended up getting offers at three.

Remember, he took the Souths job after knocking back the Wests Tigers position.

And that was after Phil Gould also offered Bennett the job at Penrith before the Panthers board went for Cleary.

This was when Cleary maintained he would not be leaving the Tigers, and all was in motion by the time Bennett was ultimately sacked at the Broncos.

What it illustrates is that when it comes to talk of coaching movements where there is smoke there is often fire, even when they try and convince us it’s only hot air.