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Wayne Bennett is arguably the greatest coach in the history of the game, but is he the best coach now? If you were in control of a club that needed a coach and you had your pick of them, with money not an issue, who would you go for?
I had a bit of a think about it first, but not for too long. After about 10 seconds I picked Des Hasler.
I don’t mean to be flippant by saying I made up my mind so quickly. I realise there are plenty of good coaches in the NRL. Apart from Bennett and Hasler, you’ve got Craig Bellamy, Trent Robinson, Ivan Cleary and Michael Maguire, just for starters.
But Hasler appeals to me as the type of coach who could go anywhere in the modern game and do anything.
His recent effort in producing a game-plan that included the use – successfully – of Tony Williams as a playmaker in the absence of regular Canterbury halves Josh Reynolds and Trent Hodkinson against Manly was brilliant.
It was the sharpest display of thinking by a coach this season.
After winning two premierships with Manly, Hasler took the Bulldogs to the grand final in his first year there, in 2012. They lost to Melbourne. Last year, the Bulldogs were eliminated from the finals in the first week, but there were excuses for a disappointing year.
Notably, the off-field dramas surrounding fullback Ben Barba and his disappointing form on the field.
A few weeks ago, I didn’t like Canterbury’s chances of winning the premiership without an established fullback, but I’ve since changed my mind. If anyone can get away with that it’s Hasler. The way he uses all of those big boppers in his side is fabulous.
When Bennett announced last week he was pulling the pin on coaching Newcastle at the end of the season, he chose his words carefully.
He said it simply hadn’t worked there and he had to take responsibility for that, and because it was going to take a while to rebuild the Knights it was better for someone else to take charge because he didn’t have that length of time to devote to the job.
There is a reasonable school of thought that Bennett should have stuck around at Newcastle and tried to help them beyond this year, rather than put them in the too-hard basket.
It will be interesting to see if he now signs for as long as three years with another club apart from Brisbane, which would be a partnership that would at least take him home.
It will also be interesting to see just how much of a real push there is from other clubs for Bennett. St George Illawarra are already well in there on the hunt, but how many others will make a genuine attempt when they know they will have to offer huge money just to be a contender.
Bennett is 64. Tim Sheens, 63, and Brian Smith, 60, have clearly reached their use-by dates or they would still be coaching in the NRL.
Bennett, with his record seven premierships, was naturally going to be afforded a longer stay, but could it be that he may decide to hang on a bit too long in a younger man’s game?
Bellamy is Bellamy. He won two premierships with Melbourne that were later stripped from the club because of salary cap cheating, then he took them back to win another.
Robinson had a blinder last year, taking Sydney Roosters to the premiership in his first season in the NRL, but he faces an ongoing challenge in trying to get them back to that consistently high level this year. He’s running out of time to get it right.
Maguore has had South Sydney thereabouts, but now he needs to get them to take that extra step to a grand final appearance, at least. Cleary has already been to a grand final, with the Warriors, and now he has the Penrith team he and Phil Gould revamped heading in the right direction.
But right now – unless the Roosters can get back to their level of last year – the team Hasler coaches and the team he used to coach, and which he built, each look like grand finalists.
That says a huge amount for him.
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