Bennett: 'I don't see the end coming'

[Super Freak]

Rugby League World Cup 2017: England job has ended retirement thoughts, says Wayne Bennett

October 25, 2017

WAYNE Bennett has put retirement on the backburner with the Broncos and England mentor revealing plans to extend his decorated career by coaching beyond the age of 70.

On the eve of Friday night’s Australia-England World Cup opener at AAMI Park, Bennett outlined his desire to torment Kangaroos rival Mal Meninga and NRL mentors for another coaching term.

Bennett is off-contract with the Broncos at the end of 2019 and it was widely expected rugby league’s greatest coach, who turns 68 in January, would walk away following the expiry of that deal.

But as he prepares to lock horns with Meninga, the Maroons legend who controversially beat him for the Australian post, Bennett insists he is not on his last legs as a club and international coach.

Bennett said the challenges of the England job, tasked with toppling Meninga’s Kangaroos, has helped reinvigorate him.

If he signs on with the Broncos for 2020, Bennett will have celebrated his 70th birthday and remarkably enter a sixth decade of coaching after launching his career with Ipswich in the 1970s.

“To be honest, I don’t see the end coming,” Bennett told The Courier-Mail.

“Retiring or finishing up in coaching just isn’t in my head.

“I need to have a discussion down the track with Brisbane about what I want to do, but I’m not in any state in my mind that I have to stop coaching the Broncos or even England.

“Age isn’t an issue. I don’t see any reason why I can’t continue coaching at the moment.

“What happens in the future is something I need to discuss with the CEO (Broncos boss Paul White) and the board. But I can say there is no immediate plans for me to retire.”

While he ostensibly has nothing left to prove after winning seven premierships, Bennett is facing fresh pressures on dual fronts.

The Broncos are mired in an 11-year title drought — the longest in their history — and Bennett has yet to add to the trophy cabinet since his return to Red Hill in 2015.

The expectation now extends offshore, with the British masses banking on Bennett to steer England to World Cup glory in this tournament after taking charge of the old enemy last year.

Bennett’s contract with the England side expires after the World Cup but he said a strong performance from the Poms will likely convince him to continue challenging Meninga.

“The England job challenges me,” he said. “I like what it has done for me.

“Coaching England ensures I must be a good coach. I have to bring the things that I bring. I have to be at my best to be doing well for England.

“It’s like the Broncos job. Yes, I’m off-contract and if I don’t think I’m the right guy for the job or the team isn’t performing the way it should, then I won’t put my hand up again.

“But I feel things are going well. If we have a good tournament, that will make it easier for me to go on.

“I need to be honest with myself and know where I am at personally with my energy and commitment levels. Right now, I don’t feel that’s a problem.”

Bennett scoffed at suggestions the Kangaroos would win the World Cup in a canter, starting on Friday night with a romp in Melbourne.

“There’s a lot of talent in this (England) team,” he said.

“I have a good group of blokes who want to be successful and want to be their best and that suits me. That’s the type of people I want to work with.”

Source: Courier Mail

 

[winslow_wong]

Doesn't he always tell players to not play on too long? Seems like he wants to coach forever. Did he really mean it when he endorsed Walters as the next coach?

 

[BroncsFan]

Doesn't he always tell players to not play on too long? Seems like he wants to coach forever. Did he really mean it when he endorsed Walters as the next coach?

Could you imagine the media if Bennet came out stating he is thinking about retirement at the end of his contract, etc.

All year after any loss it will be has Bennett just given up now that the end is near, he clearly doesn't care anymore, etc. etc. etc.

He still has 2 years to run and if we have Paul White still at the helm you know he will look to succession plans

 

[Slippin Jimmy]

A disappointing prelim exit is not enough for me to be pining for a rookie coach to supplant Bennett. The Henjak/Griffin years are still too fresh in my mind.

 

[Morkel]

It's not on Bennett to anoint a successor or even predict when he'll finish up. It's us and the media that keep wanting to pinpoint, or look to Bennett to pinpoint, the next Broncos coach, and when they'll take over.

As far as I care as long as he keeps getting results he can coach until he's 100. If that flies in the face of Walters wanting a head coaching gig, or JD the same, that's not Bennett's problem. Thankfully I haven't heard either of them bemoan the fact that Bennett isn't budging so I really don't think we have a problem. The media would of course like to make an issue of it.

 

[Renegade]

No one ever does, Benny...

 

[Scorchie]

Benny will walk by 2022, and by then Walters will be what, 53? Ugh.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

Benny will walk by 2022, and by then Walters will be what, 53? Ugh.

EXCUSE ME! 53 is still young!

 

[Thelmus]

I hope when Bennet goes, he goes with the goodwill of those around him, in his own time, on his own terms. Right now, i get that he feels he is being unfairly expected to draw up succession plans for a job he is considered to be one of the best at (3 other coaches had teams in the top 4, Bennet has had his team playing 2nd week of the finals, 9 times out of 10, and has won more grand finals than any other. He took a team with both halves in terrible form to the top 4 and got beaten by the grand final winners. Yet it would only take 1 bad year (bottom of the top 8) for him to see his last game as a coach.

 

[Renegade]

I hope when Bennet goes, he goes with the goodwill of those around him, in his own time, on his own terms. Right now, i get that he feels he is being unfairly expected to draw up succession plans for a job he is considered to be one of the best at (3 other coaches had teams in the top 4, Bennet has had his team playing 2nd week of the finals, 9 times out of 10, and has won more grand finals than any other. He took a team with both halves in terrible form to the top 4 and got beaten by the grand final winners. Yet it would only take 1 bad year (bottom of the top 8) for him to see his last game as a coach.

There has to be a proper succession plan though - if Bennett cares for the club as much as he says he does, he will recognize that there has to be a shift of power eventually, and doing it purely when he feels like it, as much as he's earnt the right, it doesn't help the club he helped build.

There'd always be a position for him at the club, it's just whether he wanted to keep on coaching.

 

[Thelmus]

I suspect like a lot of people that are at the top of their field, he will struggle to reconcile the idea of hand over "his" team to someone by definition, of lesser stature in the game. That said he has brought Walters back, or atleast the club has, he ok'd it. He would know he is there for more than coaching just the halves. I hope he takes it onboard to mentor both Walters and JD.