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If anyone in sport could rightfully be described as indestructible, it’s Wayne Bennett.
Replaceable? Maybe, especially if the hot rumours circling rugby league that Craig Bellamy will return to the Broncos as head coach either next season, with Bennett still a year to go, or 2020 when Bennett’s contract has run its course.
If Bellamy takes over, Bennett won’t be a spent force at 69-years-young, still just as keen to mentor the players of today as he was in 1988 when he became the inaugural coach of the Broncos.
And with every good reason, as the lanky and prickly one readies himself for his record 800th NRL game tomorrow night against the struggling Eels.
That’s a serious number to go with his record seven premierships, and record eight grand finals, well in front of every other contender.
But that’s Wayne Bennett, the best of all time.
The current 799 games have netted 495 wins for a success rate of 61.95 per cent. The legendary Jack Gibson’s the next best, with five premierships included in his 394 games for 245 wins, and 62.18 per cent.
And Tim Sheens was a quiet achiever, with four premierships in becoming the first to 600 games, before finishing with 669, 340 wins, and 50.82 per cent.
The record books have Craig Bellamy winning just two premierships with the Storm, having been stripped of another two as a result of salary cap rorting.
To date he’s coached 406 games for 275 wins, and 67.73 per cent.
But it would be fair to say with Cooper Cronk gone, and Cameron Smith with Billy Slater likely to retire at season’s end, Bellamy would see the Broncos as a far better alternative than staying in Melbourne.
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Both clubs have waved hefty contracts in front of him, but Bellamy is a Queenslander who has been away since 2003, and sees a return home very as attractive.
So it can be taken as read Craig Bellamy will be coaching the Broncos, it’s only a matter of next season, or 2020.
Where does that leave Wayne Bennett? There will be plenty of NRL clubs in the queue for his services, even more so in England if he cares to move abroad, especially as he’s the Poms’ current international coach.
But he’s a proud man, and he’ll be pissed off if he’s punted from the club he has mentored for a quarter of a century.
It’s the Bennett way that has moulded the Broncos culture, and the reason why they are arguably the wealthiest of the NRL clubs.
So there won’t be any lack of headlines over the next few weeks as the head-to-head between Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy unfolds.