Opinion
Wayne Bennett has been likened to Clint Eastwood and his Dirty Harry character many times due to his remarkable physical resemblance and similar squinty-eyed glare which he’s turned on reporters for decades rather than punks who may or may not feel lucky.
In the pre-season, he became Marsellus Wallace, the all-seeing, all-powerful crime lord from Pulp Fiction.
When contemplating if he needed to go to Cairns last month to watch a team featuring only a few top-liners, he sent the wolf instead. Kristian Woolf, that is. Not Winston Wolfe.
That was a pretty lengthy set-up to a reference that only Pulp Fiction fans will understand but the point is Bennett is at a point in his career where he’s done it all, seen it all and cares about nothing apart from setting the Dolphins up for future success.
He was in fine form at last Sunday’s post-match press conference, giving cheek to a few journos before and during the powwow but then spraying another scribe from Brisbane who had published an article questioning the coach’s decision to bypass the club’s first trial.
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Perhaps he’s Roger Murtaugh, from the Lethal Weapon franchise – he’s too old for this shit but he just can’t seem to quit.
Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett with fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow after the win over the Sydney Roosters. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Bennett’s been saying all along that the club will eventually become a powerhouse.
He surprised the vast majority of tipsters in Round 1 when he guided the Dolphins to a boilover win over the Roosters with the side showing more than just day-one energy to fight back from a 12-6 deficit after 20 minutes.
There was real commitment from the team of journeymen, cast-offs and fading stars who had been given little to no hope of competing with the big dogs in year one.
When the final siren sounded, the 28-18 scoreline actually flattered the Roosters – when the match was on the line, the Dolphins dominated with a try to Mark Nicholls just before half-time preceding three more in the first 16 minutes of the second stanza.
The result was straight out the Bennett playbook of saying little in the lead-up and then surprising the opposition with an uncomplicated style – a method last seen at the end of 2020 when he steered a patched-up Queensland outfit to an against-the-odds Origin series win over a star-studded NSW side.
They didn’t do too much fancy – each team had five line breaks and the Roosters shaded them with average metres per set at 42.57 to 40.29.
But the Dolphins were disciplined – another Bennett hallmark, winning the penalty count 7-2 as they dominated possession, having another five more minutes with the ball during time in play than the beaten favourites.
Bennett was relieved not just to win last weekend but to get the monkey off the back straight away. For every week they went through the season without a win, the pressure would have mounted and potentially turned into a running joke.
Coaches despise it when corporate bookmakers open markets – legit ones or confected on a journalist’s request – on when their team will break their duck. That fate may fall on Newcastle, Wests Tigers or Canterbury judging on Round 1 form.
After 32,117 fans turned Suncorp Stadium into a sea or red and white (and that weird goldish colour), the Dolphins will christen their Redcliffe base on Saturday when they host the Raiders.
The boutique venue (a euphemism for a stadium that never got the government moolah to become a decent size) tops out at around 10,000 and all tickets have been sold so even though there will be a fraction of the crowd, they will recreate another daunting atmosphere for the unwelcome visitors.
“We’ve got to move on from it and I’m sure we have done that. We will know whether we have or not (by the result),” Bennett told reporters on Friday after the captain’s run.
“You can’t live on one game. Everyone realises that. They will be wanting to go out there and show everybody that they can consistently play at that level. That’s our challenge now.”
A knee injury to Ray Stone means young lock Mason Teague, one of four Dolphins who were signed from Penrith, will make his debut off the interchange.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Bennett said he hadn’t seen too much of Teague in action but the back-rower had earned his call-up “with his attitude to everything he’s done here … The players want to play with him”. That sounds like a Bennett kind of player.
With expectations for the team low in 2023, Bennett has the luxury of being able to test-run players like Teague and Kurt Donoghoe, who got his first taste of the NRL last weekend in the closing stages.
This year’s roster still lacks star power despite their best efforts to convince a slew of marquee free agents to be the inaugural face of the franchise.
But at least next year is already trending upwards after striking a double blow on the Broncos with the signatures of Herbie Farnworth and Thomas Flegler on long-term deals.
Flegler is still yet to prove he can consistently be the spearhead of a pack with suspensions and injuries stalling his momentum – he broke into the Origin ranks with Queensland in the final game of 2021 but has not been back since.
Farnworth adds a touch of class and athleticism that the Dolphins have not been able to find apart from Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow.
Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Young five-eighth Isaiya Katoa lived up to the hype on debut, proving Bennett made the right call when he made the difficult one by dropping veteran Anthony Milford for the new team’s grand entry.
With plenty of salary cap space up their sleeve and a promising start, the next marquee free agent who is considering their options will give the Dolphins serious thought and not necessarily use them as a bargaining tool like many did last year before signing elsewhere.
As has been shown in the Dawn of the Dolphins documentary which aired last week, Bennett quickly became fed up with the Redcliffe start-up getting meetings with high-profile potential signings before being left out in the cold.
In one scene, Bennett, CEO Terry Reader and recruitment chief Peter O’Sullivan are seen before a video conference with Kalyn Ponga last year during their negotiating period.
Bennett admits he’s not confident about the Newcastle star making the transition to five-eighth. Funnily enough, this season the Knights have shifted him there in a bid to get the best out of him following his multimillion-dollar contract extension.
It’s a rare glimpse of the Bennett that the public never sees that he only reveals to a few select journalists, dropping F-bombs to emphasise his points.
Then in his pitch to Ponga, he says: “People talk about winning premierships like it’s having a drink of coffee. You’ve gotta look at your club and say ‘how many things are we doing right here’ and you look around and if you’re honest with yourself, you go ‘shit’. It’s an absolute commitment,” he says in the doco. “I know what it feels like, looks like and I’ve done it. OK, and that’s the problem with the guys that talk about it, they’ve never done it.
“So I know all the things that have got to go to do it. Righto. And that’s what I’m going to build here. I’m not building a s–t club that’s gonna not be what we’re talking about today. So I got the right people here that have got winning attitudes and bring all the things that we need.”
There was no acting from Bennett, this was the veteran coach telling it like it is.
He doesn’t need a script and whether you think he’s a villain or a hero, old Wayne is always a character.
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