Wayne Bennett still wants Gorden Tallis to know who’s boss

THEY were a successful captain-coach pairing and won three premierships together, but Wayne Bennett’s flipped Gorden Tallis a giant middle finger.

Tallis and Bennett in happier times.

THEY won three premierships together and Gorden Tallis even captained the Brisbane Broncos in the final years of his career, but still a feud between him and Wayne Bennett refuses to die.

Bennett coached Tallis for the entirety of his eight-year career at the Broncos and was also at the helm for much of the second rower’s State of Origin career, but that doesn’t mean the pair are best friends.

Tallis came out recently and said Brisbane forward Adam Blair was “one of the dirtiest players” running around in rugby league after he was charged for a chicken wing tackle on club teammate Sam Thaiday during the Anzac Test between New Zealand and Australia earlier this month.

“I am disappointed he (Blair) wears the Broncos jersey and plays like that,” Tallis said.

So he can’t have been too happy when Bennett appointed Blair captain for the Brisbane side’s clash against the Wests Tigers this Friday night in the absence of several players — including regular skipper Corey Parker — due to Origin duty.

According to Tallis, there was one big reason Bennett decided to put the “C” next to Blair’s name. Speaking on Triple M’s The Grill Team on Thursday morning, Channel 7 reporter Josh Massoud said the master coach knew exactly what he was doing when he promoted the 30-year-old to the leadership role.

“He’s fronted a business lunch in Sydney yesterday, Gordie. It was meant to be a closed lunch but word has leaked to me about what he had to say,” Massoud said.

“He told his audience that Wayne basically did that as an ‘up yours’ to Gordie.

“Wayne said, ‘Alright, you don’t think Adam Blair’s fit to wear the Broncos colours? I’ll make him captain.’

“This is a great feud, this is a great rugby league feud between these two.”

Where did all the love go?

Matty Johns then spoke about where the animosity between Bennett and Tallis stemmed from.

“Gorden believes there were certain things at the back end of his career with the Broncos that he was really disappointed in with Wayne, one of which was in his last game up in Townsville in front of his home crowd (in 2004), a big semi-final, and Wayne put him on the bench,” Johns said.

“Gordie just thought it was emblematic of their relationship back then.”

Back in 2013 Tallis himself explained why he was no longer close with his former mentor.

“Do you talk to all your school teachers when you left school?” said Tallis.

“It’s because I’m honest, and everybody is a bit scared of him.

“When he doesn’t respect the game and he doesn’t talk to the media and all the fans I just say it.”

The Broncos, as usual, face a tough proposition in getting through the Origin period without dropping too many points. In recent years, hooker Andrew McCullough and back rower Alex Glenn have taken over the captaincy while their regular leaders have been away, so it did come as a surprise that Blair — in his second year with the club — was chosen to lead this season.

Bennett coached Tallis to premiership glory in 1997, 1998 and 2000, and made him captain after that last grand final win. You’d think that would breed some level of closeness between a captain and coach, but obviously that wasn’t the case here.

And just because Bennett has fired back via his latest captaincy move, don’t expect Tallis to crawl back into his shell — as if he ever has — anytime soon.

“He told that lunch yesterday, ‘I don’t care what Wayne Bennett has done with Adam Blair, I’ll continue to voice my opinion,” said Massoud. ‘It’ll be really interesting to see what he has to say about Blair being made captain.”

Originally published as Wayne Bennett still wants Gorden Tallis to know who’s boss