The great NRL coach-off

Yep ....would have to agree with you FT. I also think Bellamy is a great coach but the influence that Smith,Slater and Cronk had not only on the field but just as importantly 'off ' the field cannot be understated. IMO they have all been gifted with exceptional football brains and a great knowledge and understanding of the game and they would have had a huge input into Bellamy's coaching skills and game plans over the years.

You can reverse that and say, what about when the Rabbits will go well in 2019 (as they will do) who will get the credit then? Hope you and everyone else won't say its because of 'Seibold' as he dogged us and had nothing to do with our success and was always a 'one trick pony'!

Don't want to denigrate Bennett's record in any way but his premiership at the dragons just happened to be the season Melbourne Storm played for no premiership points and the Storm gave the dragons a serious touch up in their only meeting. Bennett's greatest skill as a man-manager is to identify what deficiency a team has from a player perspective & recruit the right person to fill it. Early Broncos had a few Qld origin forwards but the signature of Lazarus made the difference while the Boyd, Smith, Costigan example at the dragons confirms it. That's why the 2006 win over the storm was special, he didn't have that luxury. Also did well with aging key recruits at the Knights until that private ownership model imploded. The stricter salary cap enforcement has diminished his results to some degree as it has with all the clubs who just bought a team & it will be interesting to see what he gets out of the aging Greg Inglis & whether his 'big forwards bash it up' mantra (Lazarus/Webke/Thorn etc) still works and can the 3 Burgess boys do it for him.

I don't disregard Bellamy's achievements , he has done a stellar job. So did Tim Sheens when he had a great team. The point is that Tim Sheens and others like Ricky Stuart have very average records when they are coaching average teams. It's naive to suggest that Bellamy would be any different. How does Bellamy go without Smith in his team? A 40 nil GF loss to Manly and when coaching against him at SOO level , three series losses in a row. Coaches like Sheens , Bennett and Hasler had huge reputations when they had great teams but were all shown the door when they didn't. The Storm and Bellamy have done a hell of a job with the team and creating a stable club. If this continues post Cameron Smith I'll be surprised. I give the players a lot more credit than coaches myself.

"Wrong...I’m predicting an inversion of results: Broncos third and Rabbitohs sixth" you have to be kidding. this is very similar to last year, when all the pundits here and everywhere predicted that the Bunnies will either get the woden spoon or be in the last 8 lol I got abused and laughed at, when I predicted that the Bunnies will be in the top 4. For me, this coach swap will be more of an advantage to the Bunnies than the Broncos, Seibold will not have the success that he did with the Bunnies, yes, he got us to 3rd but and lets not forget, that the Bunnies had allot of injuries to some major players that could have gotten them to minor premiers. Both side have allot to improve but, the Bunnies have allot more experienced and hardened players than the Broncos have, add Bennett and his experience and his knowhow and you get what was missing from the Bunnies under Seibold, that will get our boys right up there to win the comp in 2019, barring major injuries, the Bunnies will be right up there and should be in the top 4 again, I've got no doubt. The biggest question here is not what Bennett will or can do but "???Will Seibold???" have the same success as he did at the Bunnies with the Broncos??? I don't think so!!! Got the Bunnies!!!

Never personally understood the disregard of Bellamy purely because of having Smith, Slater, Cronk. He built an average team around three superstars and made every member of the side play a part. Having three megastars isn't enough to make every other grand final.

Just one look at ARey and GI’s injury record will tell you that mate.

And couldn’t pay the bills

I'm not quite on the 'coaches are irrelevant' bandwagon but I also think your examples are a bit thin. Bellamy's record has been discussed below, it's impossible to separate his career from Cam Smith's record. Bennett didn't just go to the Dragons and suddenly they landed a premiership. There was already the bones of a good team there, and he brought rep players like Boyd, Jeremy Smith & Neville Costigan with him to fill the gaps. It also has to be noted that the Dragons first instance of their newly aquired reputation for fade out happened during his tenure in 2011. Some bookies paid out the Dragons for the minor premiership at the halfway mark when they were 3 wins clear of the table, they finished 4th I think and lost in the 2nd week of the finals. His Broncos record has a similar minor asterix to Bellamy's. Those teams were simply chocked full of superstars. They're both still indisputably good coaches, ordinary ones wouldn't have managed their long-term records even with their advantages. But it's very hard to measure them outside of their team.

Bennett has been to the Saints , Newcastle and Broncos in the last decade or so with one title. It's a fair effort but exceeded by many of his rivals over that time. Bellamy has done a great job but he has had a unique advantage which no other coach in my time has had. Not only has he had Cameron Smith and a couple of other legendary figures but which other coach has had a player of Smith ability and influence over such a long period? He doesn't get injured or get old. Like Bennett we will find out how effective Bellamy is when Smith retires.

It was Madge who started the Music… NOT Seibold! The sentence above in the article… “They even had a DJ pumping out tunes in between efforts”. I would like to inform everyone that the Music was not Seibold’s Idea at all… The Music started at Redfern in 2012 with Michael Maguire. Madge played the Music, Seibold joined the Rabbitohs in 2017 and kept the music at Redfern in 2018 and intern has taken that to Red Hill. Strange the media didn’t cotton onto this in 2012… They just overlook aspects and report what they want, I suppose!

The Rabbitohs didn't only "Rely on the Burgess Bros as you say but for 2019 the Rabbitohs will have some 6 forwards who have had an extra season and have brought in 2 youngsters who will push for a Bench spot.

All of the Souths boys are fit mate, where did you get that rubbish about Reyno and GI from? Only Adam Doueihi is in the rehab squad at this point in time recovering from his ACL operation. This time last season the Rabbitohs had 6 players in the rehab squad. 2019, the Rabbitohs are in a far better position! Many players who were in the hospital ward have been released and replaced by very good up and comers!

And Wayne would be correct in saying that!

You could be right there...................Tinkler did employ Bennett.

Tinkler ruined Newie not Wayne

Bellamy has always had stronger rosters than all of the other coaches, a recent report from the NRL shows they are spending a whopping $1M over the cap in third party payments. When Bellamy is on equal footing with other coaches, like he was in Origin, he's proven to be a below average coach. Until he can win a comp with another team or even win without Cameron Smith in his team he'll never be talked about in the same regard as Bennett, Gould, Gibson, Sheens etc who have won Premierships with two different clubs as well as Origin series wins.

One of us, one of us... ;)

Purely observational like how Bellamy can keep getting to the big one no matter how many great players he loses or how Bennett went to the Dragons and suddenly they land a premiership. You might also ask England about the impact Bennett has had. They have been the Bridesmaid for over a decade then suddenly.......

See the young man deal with the scorched remains, not sure what your getting at, Bennett has left a highly promising bunch of young forwards for Seibold to mould, he didn't leave scorched remains. I'm a Souths member & I can't see us doing better than last year unless they crack down on the wrestle slowing down the play the ball, last year after Greenberg told the refs to ease up on that area of the game, Storm & the Sharks were able to slow down the ruck as they have been doing fo the last few years.