Wayne Bennett and Joe Biden proof old blokes rule again

Wayne Bennett and his assistant Mal Meninga at Maroons training on Tuesday

What do you think of Nathan Cleary? “I can’t tell you much about him,” Wayne Bennett said. Are you offended by the label of worst-ever Queensland team? “Will they drug-test journalists? I think they should,” Bennett said. Will you be Origin coach next year? “I’ll see what next year’s lookin’ like,” Bennett said. Thoughts on Daly Cherry-Evans? “I like working with him,” Bennett said. What does Josh Papalii bring to the Queensland squad? “A mullet haircut,” Bennett said. What do you like about Dunamis Lui? “He doesn’t talk much, and I like that,” Bennett said.

Old blokes rule. This is his 45th year of coaching. On the cusp of arguably his greatest achievement in State of Origin II, let’s start at the start. It’s 1976. Realising he was a bit of a dud player, thrown on the wing like all the dud players were in those days, too skinny and weak for any real involvement, hardly worth the bother unless the useless puny sods could toe-poke goals and occasionally finish off everyone else’s hard work, Bennett was in his mid-20s when he thought coaching might be more his go.

The team was Ipswich. He was still playing, but he was not exactly Josh Addo-Carr for speed. He was not exactly Maika Sivo for strength, biceps only just big enough to lift a cup of tea. And he was not exactly Suliasi Vunivalu for acrobatic aplomb. Joh Bjelke-Petersen was Queensland premier, Malcolm Fraser was prime minister, Greg Chappell was the Test cricket captain and television advertising was still allowed for tobacco and alcohol. Killer commercials, those.

A bit of a genius as a mentor, with a big beating heart for his players and a head for winning games of football, Bennett became a full-time coach. He took charged of his first Queensland State of Origin side in 1986. Bob Hawke was prime minister by then, Bjelke-Petersen was hanging on as premier, Allan Border had become Test captain with a gloriously grumpy disposition and ads for durries and booze were over. Wally Lewis was Bennett’s captain. Mal Meninga and Gene Miles were his centres. He had a crackerjack side, but it was a disaster. The Blues won 3-0 after Royce Simmons staggered around Lang Park in a terrible state, refusing to leave the field in traumatic post-concussion scenes that would never be allowed today.

Forty-four years after his first coaching gig, the 70-year-old Bennett, a national treasure when he’s not being a curmudgeonly old thing, or perhaps especially at those times, is on the cusp of one of his greatest accomplishments – taking a Queensland side that doesn’t have a Lewis or Meninga or Miles to a shock series victory over the star-studded NSW. Bennett isn’t that old. Joe Biden is taking command of the free world at 77, so Bennett might be around for another decade. If the Maroons leave Sydney’s ANZ Stadium singing their aye, aye, yippee, yippee team song while Bennett is slow-dancing like everything good and satisfying in the universe has entered his very soul, it will match any of his seven premierships and five Origin series triumphs.

Bennett has been irascible, insufferable and incredible in equal measure. He’s won Origin in the 1980s with the late Peter Jackson and Marty Bella. He’s won it in the 90s with Lewis. He’s won it in the 2000s with Allan Langer, when The Daily Telegraph ran one of the great back-page headlines: BLOODY ALF! And now perhaps he’ll do it again with Daly Cherry-Evans. When Bennett won his first Origin series, Cherry-Evans was yet to be born. Properly incredible, all of it. Forty-four years of service. Who to compare him to for longevity? The Himalaya mountain range.

Dynamite Maroons five-eighth Cameron Munster went from being drunk as a skunk in post grand final celebrations to saying he “felt seven-feet tall” under Bennett’s coaching. That’s how the Maroons played in the second half of Origin I. Like a squad of seven-footers inspired by Bennett’s one-liners. He came up with a few more on Tuesday, some of them humorous, some of them straight bats.

Cleary? Can’t tell you much about him. Worst-ever? Drug-test the journalists. Next year? I’ll see what next year’s lookin’ like. DCE? I like him. Papalii? I don’t like his haircut. Lui? Barely says a word. That’s what I like. It was Bart Cummings-esque. Cummings used to say the best way to learn was to watch, listen and shut the heck up.

The most formidable name on either team sheet on Wednesday night is Bennett’s, with Meninga as his assistant. Vince Lombardi coached in the NFL for 30 years. Sir Alex Ferguson had 39 years in English football. Harry Hopman’s marathon tenure as Davis Cup captain was 22 years. In world sport right now only Bill Belichick has been around longer. When Bennett turned up for Tuesday arvo training with Ipswich in 1976, Belichick was already one year into his start at the Baltimore Colts. That’s the sort of company Bennett keeps. He’s as accomplished as any coach in world sport. You can lament his lack of loquaciousness, but you cannot deny his legend. Bennett and Biden, eh? Old blokes threaten to rule once more.