Is Wayne Bennett a super coach or a super fraud?

I completely agree with this article. Being a Bunnies supporter it worries me the calibre of players Bennett wishes to retain at the club at the expense of showing juniors such as AJ the door. The following players need to go: Lowe Knight Nicholls Roberts And give starting spots to Sironen and Sele. Funny how Bennett said he has only started seeing unforced errors creeping into the Souths game since he arrived. Surely he is smart enough to know the reason. Also, can't believe he continually professes his desire to keep coaching when Demetriou is doing the lions share at the moment. Bennett has proven time and again he is incapable of building a premiership roster. Instead he profits from the hard work of others by winning premierships with established, top 4 squads.

Terrible and disrespectful article

Disrespectful click bait BS

With the rabbitohs, they're missing Sam Burgess. He was forced into retirement years early and would be working in a hands on capacity if it weren't for covid. They'd make more sense if they had a forward leader. However, the primary problem is that the coach doesn't handle everything. The head coach used to, but in the modern era, coaches will have specialists running different aspects such as defense, attack or conditioning. They will also leverage consultants (the johns brother, kevvie). It interferes with the concept of sole authorship.

Furner was the Australian coach between 1986-1988, took Canberra to their first grand final and was awarded the Dally M coach of the year. He humbly insisted that his assistant Bennett take stage with him for the award. Furner took yhe Roosters to the 1972 grand final also.

Don, your comments are a testament to the excellent development process at the Broncos back then. It was clearly the best in the NRL and Bennett seemed to endlessly find another star junior to put in the team. His ability to get an unknown player to perform at an elite level was uncanny. You would see player player "X" debut at the Broncos during Origin and you just knew they would probably be a rep player in a years time. My club the Panther's are the perfect example that proves having access to massive pool of talent means nothing without good coaching and development. While Bennett and the Broncos continued to develop juniors and great teams during the 90's, the Panthers with the largest junior base in the NRL couldn't develop any players or teams of note for the best part of 11 years. They then had two good years and another 12 years in the wilderness. Quantity means nothing without quality development and coaching. Look at the Roosters now. They don't have a large junior league to recruit from, yet they find players outside their area that they develop and bring through their systems.

Don Furner and Wayne Bennett both were awarded the DallyM coach of the year.

I was in my prime during the 1980's in my 60's, I'm 100yrs old sonny bill. Okeedokee.

Just so I'm clear, when he is the coach they do well, when he leaves they struggle? Did you read what you actually wrote? You have a logic error in your system. You need to reboot yourself.

Edward Woodward, I think you might be too young to remember the Broncos teams of the 80's and 90's. They nearly all were developed through the Bronco's junior system and debuted by Bennett. He knows how to bring through and develop talent and has the track record to prove it.

The measure of a coach is subjective at best. Perhaps we should consider player development and on-field performance as the best yardstick. It's very obvious that winning teams have the most dominating players. Having elite players affords a coach the luxury of assigning players tasks they can complete successfully, hence their collective contributions allows those elites to add their polish. These are the players that can be the difference when it counts. History is full of champions being able to bring it home on the back of the workers.

Bennett lost his mystique in Newcastle & he certainly lost a lot respect the way he left the Dragons. He blew the place up as a parting gift. If he had stayed another 2 years the Dragons win another Comp.

DP Shaefer, I beleive you may have missed the fact that under Robo, Sydney have developed and groomed a lot of players who have debuted into the NRL from the Roosters and won premierships from his coaching. Here is a fozen that came through the lower grades under Robos skilled watch. Tupou, Mitchell, Matterson, Liu, Evens, Tupounua, Famausilli, Verrills, Butcher, Radley, Manu, Watson, of which 8 are mow premiership winners. Pay or Bennett can't claim that.

I think both of those comments are a little unfair on Bellamy. I think you have to ignore the NSW berth. Bellamy is more a long term development coach than a suddenly get a whole pile of players and have to weld them into a team. Don't forget that at that time, the team was picked by committee and not by the coach. The statement about Cam Smith is technically correct but there is also the point that Cronk and Slater were there too. Everyone expected Melbourne to collapse once any one of the big 3 left and yet here we are 2 gone and hardly missed a beat. I also think you have to recognise that all three of those players were developed by and brought into first grade by Bellamy. None of them were establish NRL players when they went to the Storm and 2 of them were rejected by the Broncos. Bellamy has never bought big name established stars. He has bought journeymen, youngsters and fading lights and all of them performed better under his guidance. The measure of the man as a coach is not the fact that he has always had Cam Smith but that every one of the 16 clubs in the NRL would sign him in a heartbeat.

Yeh I have to agree. Replacing Inglis and Burgess out of a very good side is always going to be problematic unless you have two out and out superstars off contract at exactly the right time. If the Bunnies has been able to replace Inglis and Burgess with say a Tedesco and Haas (probably commanding the same dollars) then the Bunnies would probably second favourites this year to win the comp. Where I think the Bunnies are going wrong right now is the Arrow signing. Sure he’s a top tier forward. But for me he’s a like for like player with Cam Murray. You don’t need two locks in your pack. Replacing Burgess with a hard running, high workload/minute forward who can bend he line regularly and get a good offload away would have been better for south’s balance. Think Haas or David Fifita.

Perhaps, but it's worth pointing out that it isn't like Robbo took over a club that was flying... They finished 13th in the season prior to him coming in and had ended up with the wooden spoon a couple years before that. The side jagged its way into the 2010 GF like they did in 2000, but were always massive underdogs. Now that the side are an absolute powerhouse its easy to say that Robbo has had it easy, but having lived through over 30 years of Easts history, I can assure you that the side and systems in place now are a uniquely Robinson creation - even down to the little things like embracing more of the teams early history. Could he do it elsewhere? Like I write above, all we have to go on is his rookie years at Catalans, but I wouldn't bet against him.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Edward, Edward… Do you have a Robo shrine in the hallway? If Dean Pay can win premierships with Bennett’s Bronco’s then even Mary could win with the Rooster roster.

And all true. The form of the Morris twins is testament to a lot of positives around chooks and Robbo, same to be said for Bellamy. While I have deep issues with some elements of their approaches, I don’t deny there is much good about them and their systems and they are coaching masters/legends. However, before they can be held unquestioned on the highest pedestal, they need to reproduce elsewhere. Though they may not want to damage the rep. Gibson and Kearny had great records but tarnished their legacy a bit by ended with a dud. Sheens won 3 then dragged a dud Tigers from around last to Premiership against great odds in 2005 then faded into a sacking. Like players, got to know when to walk.

Wouldn't playing 47 out of 50 matches for those 2 seasons in your home state like the Dragons got to also be a natural advantage? Or that they could derive pokie revenue for 5 seasons before a qld team could?

Wouldn't play for Australia? Of the players that had played Origin before 92 half of them had already played for Australia before the 92 NSWRL season. Look how much teams struggle to retain good quality players in spine positions because players like Hunt and Taylor are going for $1M a year. An extra $50k in the early 90s isn't the equivalent to $200k now. And the fact is $200k undersells it. The Titans are offering Fifita $500k more per season for example.