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For two weeks now they’ve been telling us this would happen.
And so it came to be at 9:15pm local time last night, a moment to be etched in history.
NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett finally lost the Broncos dressing room for good.
Not only did his team submit an insipid Round 1 defeat of the reigning premiers, but they followed up with yet another tiresome extra-time battle royale against that most predictable of teams – the Cowboys.
Plain as day, Bennett’s team has simply stopped lifting for him.
The players don’t even seem to want to try.
Anybody who saw those half-hearted charges of Korbin Sims, Tevita Pangai Jr, and Herman Ese’ese in front of a packed Suncorp Stadium would be convinced Bennett doesn’t know how to inspire a new generation.
Then, to top it all off, in the shades of fulltime the prophecy rang completely true and we were treated to the sight of sad, old, pathetic Bennett, stumbling around Castlemaine Street.
Witnesses said he had a bewildered look on his face, his exhausted feet dragging past upended $12 chip buckets strewn on the pavement.
The doddery thing had gone and turned left after exiting the elevator at Gate F, not right, as his personal carer had instructed him too.
He couldn’t find the dressing room if he tried.
Of course this isn’t the first time the all-knowing critics have correctly predicted Bennett’s inability to locate a dressing room.
He once infamously ended up in a janitor’s closet only moments before Alfie Langer hoisted the Winfield Cup.
Even in his formative Brisbane rugby league years, when he arrived as a young coach full of ‘crazy’ ideas, he came perilously close to losing a dressing room.
Rumour is he ended up wandering away from Corbett Park to the banks of Kedron Brook one night, staring aimlessly towards the horizon, before snapping back to reality.
In the modern era, golden point extra-time has clearly been his kryptonite.
There’s solid evidence the seven minutes of added time last night contributed to Bennett’s bamboozled state.
“I’ve not set the iQ to record the end of Attenborough,” Bennett was overheard telling assistant coach Jason Demetriou before leaving the coach’s box in a flustered state.
Well-placed sources within the team confirmed exclusively to Danny Weidler that Bennett had left half a cup of Earl Grey tea and an uneaten Scotch finger biscuit on a window ledge.
Further scuttlebutt contended that not only did he lose the dressing room at Suncorp Stadium, he also forgot to take his heart medication, turn off the porch light and floss before departing.
In any case, Johnathan Thurston’s field goal came well beyond Bennett’s bedtime.
A recent spotlight on the impending departure of halfback Ben Hunt has only sought to enhance the view Bennett has passed his use-by date.
As fortune would have it, as a disoriented Bennett veered further and further away from the Suncorp Stadium dressing sheds last night, who should he bump into on Given Terrace?
None other than former charges Greg Dowling and Willie Carne, both quoted as strong critics of Bennett’s inability to retain Hunt.
His bearings lost and memory failing, Bennett looked expectantly at the two for answers.
“Remind me,” the out-of-touch mentor said, “What happened the following seasons after you left the Broncos?
“I seem to remember something big happening in ’92 and ’97 but can’t quite put my finger on it.”
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