Bennett Remembers Fateful Day

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GCBRONCO

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Mar 4, 2008
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WAYNE Bennett wasn't celebrating a major Brisbane Broncos anniversary today but the coach left no doubt about the importance of those events.

March 6, 1988 was the day Brisbane trotted out it's first rugby league team in the New South Wales premiership.

Eighty minutes and seven tries later, 1987 premiers Manly were reeling from a shock 44-10 Lang Park ambush at the hands of the Wally Lewis-led, Bennett-coached Broncos.

Brisbane fans were quick to hail their new sporting team.

Another five wins on the trot and a Sydney newspaper posed the question: had NSW officials made a grave error in inviting a Queensland team to play it its competition.

"Have we made a mistake ... are the Broncos just too strong?" it asked.

Apart from Lewis, who was nearing the end of his great career, the Broncos had several homegrown stars like Gene Miles and hard man Greg Dowling.

There was some emerging talent including Allan Langer, a tiny halfback from Ipswich who'd made his Origin debut the previous year and for whom the Broncos paid $20,000 to buy out his contract with the Jets.

And there was an aggressive, tearaway winger named Michael Hancock -- an angry young man with great speed, strength and determination who went on to play a record number of games for the club.

Miles remembers the afternoon not so much for walloping Bob Fulton's defending premiers, but for the crowd, or lack of it.

"I was surprised at the crowd," said Miles, who recalled running onto Lang Park and seeing lots of empty seats.

"To think we were playing the premiers in our debut game and there was only like 17,000 fans at a ground that held 30,000 people."

While just about everyone in Brisbane claims to have attended the Broncos' historic first game, the official crowd that March 6 afternoon was just 17,451.

"I remember thinking to myself why isn't Lang Park full?"

Miles, Lewis and Dowling and even Greg Conescu had played a lot of football together, including State of Origin and were a big factor in Brisbane making such a stunning arrival.

The team won its first six games and Miles laughed today when recounting the Sydney newspaper article raising fears Brisbane may be too good.

"What a joke that was, we lost our next five games or something," he said.

"I remember thinking how ridiculous the article was."

Bennett's mind was on Sunday's week's 2008 season opener against Penrith when he was asked today if he reflected on the 20th anniversary.

"You've reminded me about it with your call," said Benentt, the foundation coach who will walk away at the end of the season.

"You're usually too busy looking at the next game to think of those things.

"I'll walk out of this room when I hang up and someone will want something from me and it'll be gone.

"If you start looking back in the past, you start living in the past."

Bennett remembers Brisbane's hot start in 1988 well enough.

"I remember those first six weeks (six wins) too, but I knew we weren't living in the real world," he said.

"Sydney's always been a tough competition to play and it was no different 20 years ago.

"It was probably tougher then, there was some pretty tough footballers who knew how to work you out and do a job on you back then."

Having said that, Bennett freely admits the significance of that performance in shaping Brisbane's future.

"A lot of hype went into the clash with Manly being the premiers and all the unanswered questions, like could we be competitive, got answered.

"We had some wonderful players, but they were ageing and they hadn't played in the Sydney comp which was different to playing Origin.

"We got it right on the day and played really well and the talent the guys had came through.

"Manly probably weren't the team they'd been the year before either but that didn't matter.

"All that mattered was Brisbane fans knew they had a footy team."

Bennett always acknowledges the contribution Lewis, Miles, Dowling and the like made in setting up Brisbane's a long-term success.

"Those guys helped us get a winning culture because we were competitive from day one.

"They also bought the time for us to develop players like Alfie and Terry Matterson (who scored 24 points) who was only a kid.

"There was a whole stack of them that went on to be great players in our premiership teams."
 

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