7 since 88, correct. 5 in the first 12 years, 2 in the proceeding 12. he got very, very lucky with the 2006 premiership, and well, lucky again in 2010 that melbourne were taken out of the race for the premiership.
i can argue that he keeps mediocre players because he does. i dont argue that hes a bad coach, i argue that hes not among the best ANYMORE. its hard to argue that he is, given the success of coaches like hasler and bellamy. noone can argue that bennett has been a better coach over the last 6-7 years than those 2, because he hasnt. you just seem to think that saying someone isnt the best = theyre bad. its not. its exactly what it says - not the best.
you cant judge bellamy on Origin at all. origin coaching is a completely different thing to NRL coaching. its more just about getting the players ready mentally. youve had a team chosen for you, and you have 3 weeks spread out over 7 weeks time to coach them. plus he was up against a pretty handy team in the record setting 7 wins in a row QLD team, wouldnt you say? its like saying that all the other teams were rubbish in 1998 cause they got beaten by the broncos, who were just a far better team than every other one.
like ive said many times, yet people like you keep ignoring and making stuff up, i give wayne bennett plenty of credit. he WAS the best coach for a long, long time. hes not now. with newcastle he has at least realised that you need to buy players instead of wasting time with people that arent going to get the job done. i dislike it because it comes across as just trying to buy a premiership, but at least it shows hes not stuck in his old ways of giving every nice guy a permanent spot in the team, often at the detriment of the team.
like was said in one of the other threads the other day, you cant just keep playing the "hes won 7 premierships that means hes still the best coach" card like some play the "the broncos have 6 premierships in 25 years so you cant complain about this seasons results" card. noones trying to rewrite history, we know he won those premierships. but his coaching style and recruitment in the last 12 years has been outdated and lackluster. only the last few years has he started to show that hes changing his gameplan. for 10 years before that it was bash up the middle then give it to your superstars to do their thing. great when you have superstars, absolutely terrible when you dont. keeping michaels/kelly/stag cause theyre top blokes doesnt get you superstars.