Wayne Bennett should be at the top of the New Zealand Rugby League’s shortlist of one when they draw up candidates to replace Michael Maguire.
The Kiwis have put the jersey before results by telling Maguire that he would have to fall on his sword if he wanted to take up the NSW State of Origin gig.
And that’s fair enough – in the dubious world of rugby league eligibility, it would be an extremely amateur look for the international game to have the same coach in charge of a provincial side as well as one of the main Test nations.
If there was a Kiwi version of Victor Radley who came to Maguire before his first representative match to ask whether he should choose his state or country, it would put the coach in an extremely awkward situation.
“We believe with the status and mana in the Kiwis shirt that we want someone who is 100% focused on that,” said NZRL boss Greg Peters. “Michael always was that and still is, but we don’t see that the dual roles work.”
With mid-season Tests now a thing of the past, the Kiwis won’t return to the playing field until after the 2024 NRL season.
Which just happens to be when Bennett is coming to the end of his set-up stint as the Dolphins’ inaugural coach before handing the Redcliffe clipboard to Kristian Woolf.
Bennett has history with the Kiwis – he was an assistant/consultant to Stephen Kearney when they shocked the world (well, the rugby league parts of the globe) in 2008 by beating the Kangaroos in the World Cup final.
The record-breaking veteran is adamant he’s not contemplating retiring even though he will be turning 74 to kick off 2024.
He is a chance to be snapped up by an NRL club for the following season but the Kiwis could get in early to convince him that his final challenge as a coach would be to take NZ to a second World Cup crown in 2026.
Bennett vs Mal Meninga, two Queensland icons who have had a tempestuous relationship over the years so those two going head to head in the Test arena would add extra spice to the repetitive nature of rugby league’s international fixtures.
Who can forget Meninga’s newspaper column a few years back when he revealed he and Bennett were “not enemies, but we’re not friends either … There’s no bad blood, there’s just no blood at all. There is no relationship there. We don’t talk”.
He accused Bennett, someone he had known since they were young police officers in the 1970s, of undermining him after Meninga got the nod ahead of him for the Kangaroos gig, which he’s kept ever since.
They’ve since brokered an uneasy truce and Meninga ended up helping Bennett after he stepped in late to coach the Maroons in the unprecedented end-of-season 2020 Origin series.
Bennett’s strength as a coach over many decades has been his ability to make the sum of a team’s talents greater than its individuals.
And that’s the kind of coaching which translates well to Test footy where squads form a special bond in small windows that need to last long periods apart before they regroup again, often nearly 12 months later.
The Kiwis have bounced back under Maguire since he took over from David Kidwell five years ago – they won 13 of 19 matches under the former Rabbitohs mentor with only three of them gimmes from the World Cup pool games.
They beat the Aussies twice under Maguire – his first encounter with them in 2018 and the 30-0 shellacking dished out at Waikato at the start of this month in the Pacific Championships final.
Maguire finishes his stint as the most successful Kiwis coach in terms of winning percentage at 68.4%, ahead of Kearney (55.8) and Tony Gordon’s 13-match stint in the late 1980s when he won seven Tests, the only three to win more than they lost.
Bringing Maguire in to coach was a departure from tradition with Daniel Anderson the only other foreigner given the prestigious gig.
If the Kiwis opt not to go down the trans-Tasman path again to chase Bennett or he is not interested, there is a deficiency in their own production line.
The only New Zealander coaching in the NRL is Benji Marshall, who is just about to embark on his first full season after he was parachuted into the Wests Tigers’ hot seat a few rounds out from their second successive wooden spoon.
Kiwi league icon Stacey Jones is a potential option after serving a lengthy apprenticeship as an assistant (and briefly caretaker head coach) at the Warriors while Nathan Cayless is earning a reputation as a future NRL mentor after cutting his teeth at the Roosters and Tigers.
He is returning next season to Parramatta, where he captained the club with distinction, as their NSW Cup coach and with Brad Arthur under the pump to deliver a trophy after a decade of fluctuating fortunes, Cayless could be the next in line.
mushi
Roar Guru
The biggest international game is football. Where are the best managers there? Probably second is basketball? Same story
Horses for Courses
Roar Rookie
To be fair by the time the Kiwis play again Bennett will no longer be a club coach right? He is leaving the Dolphins at the end of next year, I didn't dream that?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Why is it a conflict for Origin coach Maguire to coach the kiwis but not for club coach Bennett? There’s far more overlap between the club and international calendars than origin and international. Bennett’s club commitments would be far more intrusive to him coaching NZ than Maguire’s Origin commitments I get the Maguire situation wouldn’t be ideal, but his results have been brilliant and I think NZ might have been better served looking for ways to make the situation work than pulling the plug immediately I’ve read the ‘Victor Radley’ example before. Regardless of who is coaching where, I would hope young players have better advisors on their playing future than rep coaches who have their own vested interest regardless of where else they’re coaching and may not be in the job in six months time anyway…
ScottWoodward.me
Roar Guru
Let's not let logic impinge an astute decision! * Madge will spend hundreds of hours plotting how to defeat the Maroons which make up 11 of the Kangaroos. * The remainder of the Kangaroos will come from the NSW Blues who Madge will be Coaching this year. Will there be any other coach who would know how to defeat the Kangaroos better than Madge?
Tony
Roar Guru
You're wrong, of course, but anything to deflect from the shambles that goes by the name of Rugby Australia I guess.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Yeah then of course they meet the selection criteria for a few different teams next year. The League way. What!!! You once ate at a Lebanese reastaurant???? Thats it then you qualify for Lebanon.
matth
Roar Guru
The thought of Bennett in that bedroom scene will now haunt me forever.
Tony
Roar Guru
Slow day again on the union page? I think you'll find that all the players selected for NSW pass the NSW selection criteria, just like the players selected to play for the Wallabies and the All Blacks pass their respective selection criteria.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Ed the Kiwi league team and the NSW SOO team are both the same sport with players all selected from the same pool. I see a massive conflict of interest in coaching players who have a good chance of being the opposition. Can you imagine a person coaching the Bronco's but being a assistant at the Dolphins in the same year? Major conflict of interest.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
His contract was extended and he had the full support of the board before he decided to coach what is effectively an oposition team. Why on earth would NZRL allow him to coach the opposition players?
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Its not a true side at all. It has plenty of players from elsewhere. Why not call it a NSW invitation side.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Just smacked the Aussies in the PAC championship so why not kick that pride in the teeth and not make the team 100% Kiwi with Coach Stacey Jones. They should be so over Australians anywhere near this team. What’s the other legend Mannering up to ?
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I was thinking NZ
andrew
Roar Rookie
I wouldn't want Griffin anywhere near the QLD Origin team, in any capacity.
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
What conflict of interest? He'd have been coaching two sides that would have entirely separate selection pools. It's exactly the same as Cheika coaching Argentina in rugby and Lebanon in league.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I wonder if Hook can coach at rep level. He clearly can’t at club level, but he genuinely surprised me with his Fox commentary this year, very insightful and articulate. It might be where he fits.
Muzz Manyana
Roar Rookie
Surely Webster can do both jobs.He would look great in black tracky dacks.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
Woolf is terrible at communication, all he does is huff and puff.
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Kiwis might go after Bellamy - would be a good fit and might suit his schedule from 2025.
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Hook who?