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With the news that the Newcastle Knights have signed St George-Illawarra Dragons star Beau Scott for the 2013 season, Wayne Bennett has now lured four ex-Dragons to his new club.
Darius Boyd, Alex McKinnon and Adam Cuthbertson all left with him at the end of last season.
There are also reports that the poaching of players from the Dragons is far from done, with Australian Schoolboys hooker Cameron King also on the radar of the Knights, along with whispers that another high profile Dragons player has made overtures about breaking his contract so that he could join Bennett in Newcastle.
The Knights aren’t slaying the Dragons. They’re recruiting them.
With the addition of Dragons players, some fans have been asking whether a Bennett premiership with the Knights will be as impressive as his other competition victories. The criticism is based on a sentiment that Bennett would simply be winning another competition with the Dragons; but in Knights jerseys.
First of all, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re only into round two of the season, and the Knights have won one game and lost one game. They are not assured of the title this year, or any year. So proclaiming Bennett’s title with the Knights is somewhat tarnished is supremely presumptuous; they haven’t even won one yet.
Secondly, yes Newcastle are building an impressive squad. But to suggest it’s a reincarnation of the Dragons is stretching the truth a touch. Of all the Dragons recruits, only Boyd and Scott were integral players for the Saints. Two ex-players? That’s hardly reason to label the Knights as ‘Dragons-lite’.
When Bennett left the Brisbane Broncos for the Dragons, he faced quite the challenge. The club had a history of under performing, earning the very unwanted ‘chokers’ tag.
However, the perception that he came in and turned the exact same team of losers into winners is historically inaccurate. The Dragons brought in players like Jeremy Smith, Neville Costigan, Luke Priddis, Michael Weyman and Mickey Paea.
And Bennett also brought Darius Boyd with him from the Brisbane Broncos.
In other words, Bennett recruited for the Dragons every bit as much as he is doing for Knights. And his premiership with the Dragons isn’t ‘tainted’, so why would a Knights one be?
Lastly, it’s the responsibility of every club in the NRL to put the best possible team they can on the park. Recruitment is a major part of rugby league. No team is going to win the competition with a completely ‘home grown’ squad; a list exclusively made up of juniors that were brought up through the club’s system.
Each year, every single club signs new players. It’s then the responsibility of the coach to do the best he can with that squad.
And each year, fifteen coaches go home empty handed.
Seven times, more than any other coach, Bennett has been the one still smiling in October.
It is an extremely impressive feat to win the NRL title, and whichever coach wins the competition deserves all the kudos that come his way.
The answer to the question in the headline is a resounding ‘yes’. It would be a very impressive feat for Bennett to lead the Knights to an NRL premiership.
Should Bennett bring a competition victory to the Hunter Region, people are free to believe it would be the least impressive of his NRL premierships, if they choose. But I would disagree.
And even if you do choose to feel that way, it’s like saying Britney Spears is Justin Timberlake’s least impressive girlfriend.
I can assure you, there are many coaches who wish they went home with Britters.
So to speak.