When will Wayne Bennett be a Hall of Famer and an Immortal?

Big Mal was my be of my favourite players as a kid, for all the reasons you just stated.

Gday David, would we have an elite comp for the Bennett's to coach in if we didn't have the grassroots comps? You and me have very different interpretation of what the 'life blood of the sport ' is? To think that you consider an extremely well paid coach who isn't doing it for the love of the game or his club is the lifeblood, is well , bl00dy offensive to all the grassroots legends who not only coach but wear multiple hats like recruit, club president/secretary ,canteen worker ,groundsperson ,treasurer,driver, counsellor etc,etc and do this all ,year after year for little to no pay as well as digging into their own money for various things for the club , teams and players. In Waynes illustrious carreer I wonder how many times he has done the line marking every weekend or paid for a couple of players insurances for the season ? You will find that these are the people who are the true 'lifeblood of the game' and that they are the ones keeping league alive in the regional cities and small towns everywhere through Qld and Nsw. I suggest these people deserve Hall of Fame status well before a professional coach

Q...why doesn't Fairfield have a fully professional Rugby League team? A...because Parramatta would want one too!

I think Meninga's playing career is under appreciated these days. I think (haven't fact checked) he broke gasniers record for test caps despite injuries. Sometimes he seemed like the biggest , fastest and most agile guy on the park. Oh and he ran great lines, defended like a chainsaw and was a goal kicker. I think we look back and see an oaf because he looked clumsy in highlights, but he was always running over big guys, past fast guys and around agile guys enough to suggest he was a mercurial talent.

"You and I... You and I are like one o'clock and eleven o'clock. You see, we are closer to each other than to others. Winning, losing, all that stuff is for the little people. Men like us, we jump to free our souls. We are the only two jumpers with a chance to make history today. If we do less than our best with the whole world watching, it will kill us inside. For all time."

Achievement is relative. You want people to actually be happy and driven, develop an internal loci of focus. If my first born had have lived to run last in a race it would have been the proudest moment of my life.

The medal for everything is weird but the external loci of focus this builds is unhealthy and rationally lazy. It also doesn't actually help with achievement as it's driven by how good others are not yourself. That's how we get Johns taking ecstasy before games or the Mitchell Pearce experience. It also drives a culture of imbalance as they're encouraged to ignore anything challenging if someone else is better. Revel in your wins, sure, but if you want your kids to be happy and driven then the only person they should be competing with is themselves. If they tried to beat yesterday's version of themselves then you should be proud. This comes from an unhealthily competitive person.

I'd have thought the life blood were kids playing rugby league.

Ha ha, I like the cut of your jib, good sir. Maybe if we went back to giving kids a jolly good flogging when necessary society would not have half the problems it’s got

If Bennett is a myth then that’d make Tim Sheens a fable. Literally everything you wrote against Bennett also applies to Sheens and everything you wrote in favour of Sheens also applies to Bennett.

They’re also quite handy for giving the kids a jolly good flogging.

Well Glenn atleast you have plenty of wooden spoons in your cutlery draws for making soup

David, it is a pretty weak tactic to try to misrepresent my argument and take my words out of context claiming that I would in any way disparage the memories of these men as you say, "to call them mediocre is an insult" and something I would never do. Their contributions to the game were as journalists or broadcast journalists (commentators) David. Of course aside from those that played the game (i.e. Tiger Kelly, Frank Hyde, Reg Gasnier, Rex Mossop et al). I am simply arguing to separate sporting accolades from broadcast journalism. Not too much to ask, surely? Or would you suggest it was appropriate for Cam Smith to get a "Walkley Award" David? Perhaps journalists could receive an "Oscar" simply for their coverage of the award ceremony? Would that be fair David? FYI, I started following the game in 1970 and I used to listen to Frank Hyde on the radio and watch games in black and white before seeing my first game in colour in 1975 (the replay of the 1975 Amco Cup final between Easts and Parramatta). Mostly I remember Rex Mossop on CH7 as the voice of the game during my childhood and later David Morrow and Warren Boland on ABC Grandstand. That should give you some context of where I am coming from. We can agree to disagree David. That is an option too mate.

Arthur Halloway is the games most successful coach and is already in the Hall of Fame. As is Ken Kearney, Norm Provan, Clive Churchill. They were all super players of course. I have no problem with Gibson, Bennett, Sheens, Bellamy, Jack Raynor (look it up), Charlie Lynch (really look him up - the first specialist coach who won premierships in his first two years) and Bob Bax being recognized in a coaching Hall of Fame .

Let’s just casually gloss over the fact he left the Dragons and Knights in terrible shape and the majority of his success comes from a test standard Broncos team.

If you look at NFL hall of fame there are 326 people inducted which includes players,coaches,owners,media, administrators and contributor's ??? for their contribution to the game. It is picked by a panel of 48 . I know that their league immeasurably bigger than ours but if we only recognize players it is slap on the face to the rest of the people who have contributed to rugby league both in NSW and Qld for the last 100 years.

But who cares about winning?? It is overated. Honestly as a Parramatta fan, I'm quite accepting that trying and having fun is good enough. Imagine supporting one of the European soccer teams with no hope of ever winning anything. Not everyone can be Leicester.

I believe there is room for Hall of Fame for administrators, coaches, referees and the media. Administrators - Ken Arthurson, John Quayle, Kevin Humphreys, Ron McAuliffe, Frank Facer, SG Ball and Peter Moore. Coaches- Wayne Bennett, Jack Gibson, Harry Bath, Bob Bax and Norm Provan. Referees- Col Pearce, Bill Harrigan, Mick Stone and Laurie Bruyeres. Media- Frank Hyde, Rex Mossop, Ray Warren, Tom Goodman, Alan Clarkson, Ian Heads, Geoff Prenter, Col Pearce, Bill Mordey, EE Christensen and Peter Frilingos.

Sorry David, Can't agree with you on this one. The elite level of Rugby League is made up of players of superior skill and therefore they are the ones to receive the accolades. If you start to include the coach, where do you draw the line. Someone here mentioned the coaching staff meaning a group of people doing the coaching. You suggest it can't be done without the coaches. A footy club also needs the medical staff, the strappers, the ball boys, the laptop operators we see in the coaches box, the water runners, the sin bin timers, and all the auxillary staff associated with running a successful club. Players get credited with the number of games they play and milestone events are often big news like Cooper Cronk's 350th the other night. Cameron Smith should hit the magical 400 game mark this season, a huge milestone. With your proposal, a by-product could be crediting all of the abovementioned club staff with games because they were important to the workings of their club. If that does happen the whole concept would be severely diluted. No David, it's all about the players, no players, no game and remember it is they who sweat from November through until the season starts even though the coach may get a sweat up roaring at his charges.

I don't agree with the idea personally but it is a slippery slope. Would hate to see media such as commentators, administrators or journalists be admitted. Also your comment about what would League be without the coaches. Many would argue the coaches have ruined the game. Way too much control and influence.