NRL 2023: Master coach explains why assistants don’t always cut it as head coaches

Wayne Bennett has a theory about assistant coaches, and it may have been proven right by Cameron Ciraldo’s struggles at the Bulldogs.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 23: Coach Wayne Bennett is seen during a Dolphins NRL training session at Suncorp Stadium on March 23, 2023 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Wayne Bennett has a theory there’s something fundamentally flawed in the way some rugby league clubs hire coaches.

He told Nine earlier this year one of the “greatest myths of his life’’ was that good assistant coaches automatically become good head coaches and that the interview process was “bulls**t’’.

Bennett said silver tongued aspirants who “sound like geniuses’’ convinced naive boards to hire them but often “failed to deliver’’ when the pressure was on.

Bennett was talking before the spectacular implosion of the Bulldogs under new coach Cameron Ciraldo so we can’t say he had anyone in particular in mind.

But in the light of Ciraldo’s fall from grace this year it’s interesting to reflect on Bennett’s thoughts that endless years as an assistant coach does not automatically prepare you for the big gig.

In fact Bennett contends the reality is the roles can be as different as a shadow to a spotlight.

Wayne Bennett with fans. Picture: Patrick Woods

After Dolphins training on Friday I asked Bennett to expand on his thoughts from earlier in the year, sensing he would play them down. If anything, he seems even more strident.

“I stand by that ... assistant coaches have no responsibility,’’ Bennett said.

“Then there is a thing called pressure and you only know what pressure is when the pressure is on. I am seeing some things in the last month or two that suggest to me that these coaches (none were mentioned by name) are well qualified but they’re totally under pressure.

“That’s where the cracks appear when the pressure comes on. That’s what makes the good ones and the ones not so good.’’

This year in the NRL there have been both extremes among the assistants promoted to first grade – Warriors coach Andrew Webster, who was an assistant with Ciraldo at Penrith, is one of the coaches of the year while Ciraldo has had a “Barry Crocker.’’

Bennett is not the only one who has reservations about the theory that assistant coaching automatically grooms coaches for the head role.

Cameron Ciraldo is under the pump. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

In pre-season a survey of NRL coaches, 58% said assistant coaching was the best pathway but 21% said lower grade coaching and a further 21% said a head coaching role in the English Super League were better.

So that’s one in three who would agree with Bennett’s theory that it’s not until you have your own team that you fully grow.

In some ways, Bennett’s prodigy Kevin Walters confirms Bennett’s reservations about the interview process where slickness often trumps substance.

Walters was always far more confident in the dressing room - his natural habitat - than the interview room where he often missed out on jobs to smoother operators who never saw a flow chart or an overhead transparency they didn’t like.

Substance and sincerity got there in the end - but it was a close run thing.

Originally published as NRL 2023: Master coach explains why assistants don’t always cut it as head coaches