mrslong said:
Wow a quality article about the Broncos and Wayne Bennett in a fairfax paper [icon_confu
It's true I reckon WB wants to come back and restore the club to what he built it into. Bruno & Co - wtf was their agenda anyway? Does anyone know? Surely they love the Broncos and wanted us to do well, is it just that they are poor decision makers?
I don't think there's much mystery to it. Someone correct me if I've got the series of events wrong though.
After the Broncos' less than stellar performances from 2003-2005, the Broncos decided Wayne Bennett should sign a contract and they should start planning for life beyond Bennett. For whatever reason, this didn't sit well with Bennett who had been with the club on handshake agreements since 1988. He probably took it as a lack of trust or confidence in him.
Sydney Roosters came knocking asking if Wayne would take over as coach in 2007, and as we now know, he agreed on the condition that the negotiations stayed confidential. Somehow, it got leaked in 2006 and so Bennett canned the move.
But that was seen as a betrayal by Bruno and the board, and that pretty much sent the relationship spiraling towards being untenable. The decision was made Bennett would not be retained beyond 2009.
Depending who you talk to, it's Bruno's fault, or it's Bennett's fault. In reality it was both of them at fault and was poorly handled.
As for Henjak being the best fit for the club, well, we'd seen numerous Bennett understudies go on to successful coaching careers over the years. Most notably Craig Bellamy. So it made sense that Henjak would follow. Unfortunately as time has shown, Henjak's personality and people management skills weren't up to his tactical and coaching ability. As head coach, those intangible skills are probably as important if not more so than footy knowledge.
Some people did mention those shortcomings at the time of his appointment as a concern.
Griffin is different. Yes, he's worked under Bennett, but he's also worked independently of Bennett with different clubs, different players, different backgrounds. He's had success at every level and you struggle to find anyone who he's worked with or coached that has a bad word to say about him. This is positive to me. Very positive.
Will his results be as good or better than Henjak? Time will tell. But it's important to note that Henjak wasn't sacked because of the on field results. It was the off field issues.