Wayne Bennett has walked out on a press conference after taking exception to questions about his coaching future at NRL club Brisbane.
On the eve of the Broncos’ clash with Melbourne, Bennett did not want to respond to a media report claiming the Storm’s off-contract coach Craig Bellamy had not ruled out moving to Brisbane next year.
“I am coach here next year, that could change. But if you don’t want to talk about the footy I will leave it at that,” said Bennett before walking off.
Bennett is not off contract until the end of 2019.
Bellamy said in the News Corp report that he had not “ruled out any option” including becoming Broncos head coach or even taking up a coaching consultancy role at Brisbane in future.
Bellamy cut his teeth as a Broncos assistant under Bennett 20 years ago.
It is believed Brisbane are looking at their future options after reportedly missing out on one of their targets, North Queensland mentor Paul Green, when he re-signed with the Cowboys earlier this week.
Before leaving, reporters did have time to ask Bennett for his thoughts on Bellamy becoming the next Broncos coach.
“You had Paul Green here a month ago, now we have moved on,” he said.
“We have a great game of footy tomorrow. Let’s leave the rest of it for you guys to speculate – I certainly don’t want to buy into the rubbish.
“Nothing is permanent, nothing is temporary, even for coaches. I am coach here next year for as far as I know.”
Asked if he could work with Bellamy as a Brisbane co-coach, Bennett said: “I am not responding to any of your speculation.
“You have to get on shows and talk for hours, at the end of the day you have nothing to talk about so you make it up.
“There is a great game of footy tomorrow, I will talk to you about that.”
Quizzed further, Bennett clearly had enough.
“Thanks guy, you had your chance,” he said as he walked off.
Bennett did confirm that prop Matt Lodge (ribs) had been cleared to play the Storm at Suncorp Stadium.
Cronulla recruit Jack Bird remains in the Broncos halves with Kodi Nikorima (hip) starting on the bench against Melbourne.
Remo Shankar
Roar Pro
There should be a second contingency press corp. What they could do is hover off to the side of the regular press conference and when it's over they could stalk the numbnut journos who ask these type of questions and grill them - could be quite amusing to watch.
PNGBF88
Guest
you are as clueless as the media?
steveng
Roar Rookie
I don’t agree with Wayne, he has always been a sour old puss over the years. The media is all 'part and parcel' of the modern NRL game and he has gotten away with allot in his days of coaching and with the media. Every coach has to cop the 'good with the bad'. As far as I’m concerned, the pinnacle was when he coached the British side where, the British media complained about his disinterested replies and treating them with contempt. Wayne get a ‘personality’ and stop playing the cat and mouse game because and as its so apparent now ‘the media is out to get you’ and/or have a go at you. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the fire, it’s a bit useless to just walk away when things are not going your way and to your liking.
Emcie
Roar Guru
You forgot Walters
Con Scortis
Roar Guru
I'm with Bennett on this. The journalist hacks asking the questions have lost another shred of credibility and should go work The Daily Mail.
Lovey
Guest
He’s a surly cuss but this time, he is quite right. The hounds were just fishing for ahead.ine
Nat
Roar Guru
Imagine 30yrs of this? Before he was just bemused by journos asking silly questions, now they don't even ask about the game.
Paul
Roar Guru
I just wish more coaches, players etc, would do the same as Bennett and leave press conferences. The media thinks it decides what we the public want to know about. Well, I wanted to know about the Storm/Broncos game and thanks to those clowns, I got only a brief glimpse.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
It’s insane the speculation on this story. It’s basically “Bellamy never specifically said he wasn’t going to the broncos, so let’s run with that.” If that’s the type of garbage they want to report on then I’d expect Bennett will be storming out on more media sessions in the future. Nearly as bad as the yearly Inglis to Brisbane “rumour” that kept doing the rounds.
John
Guest
It is rather sad, that the media would rather focus on the drama surrounding the game rather than to focus on the game itself.
Forty Twenty
Guest
The media are really hopeless sometimes. What on earth did they expect Bennett to say. It's like these clowns who constantly harass a politician to rule out challenging for the leadership. No one has to rule out challenging for any position at any time in the future and constant harassment is so boring.
jamesb
Guest
I hope Bellamy stays at the Storm for the next couple of years just to help the club transition itself from the "big 3".
Joe
Roar Rookie
Have to agree with Wayne here, great clash coming up tomorrow and all the questions about speculation over another coach that he would know nothing about. I'm surprised he stayed that long.
jamesb
Guest
Very disappointed with the Roar editors. The headline should be "Broncos coach Bennett storms out on media".
PNG Broncos fan88
Roar Guru
Media fuelled speculation. Green, Bellamy, who's next??