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Wayne Bennett hits back at critics of Broncos’ handling of Corey Oates’ concussion
September 21, 2017
WAYNE Bennett has slammed critics of Brisbane’s handling of the Corey Oates concussion saga after the Broncos winger was cleared for Friday night grand final qualifier against Melbourne.
Oates took one final, successful step towards a swift recovery from concussion when the Broncos flyer completed the captain’s run at Red Hill on Thursday.
Just seven days ago, the Maroons winger suffered a sickening head-knock in Brisbane’s finals defeat of Penrith and was rated next to no hope of recovering in time to face minor premiers Melbourne at AAMI Park.
But Oates has passed a series of cognitive tests and ran strongly at Brisbane’s final training run, giving Broncos medicos complete confidence as they gave him the green light to take on the Storm.
Many in the NRL fraternity are sceptical of Oates’ ability to recover so quickly, but Bennett blasted suggestions the Broncos are jeopardising the winger’s welfare by allowing him to line-up against Storm hulk Suliasi Vunivalu.
“I can’t understand it (the criticism),” Bennett said.
“The one thing in life is that they have never built a statue to critics. Critics are what they are. Fortunately I don’t listen to them.
“No one is concerned more for Corey’s welfare than this club. I’m not really interested in anybody’s else opinion outside this club.
“There has never been any pressure on any player to play with me here.
“It was in the hands of the doctors, they made a decision (that Oates is fit) and Corey wants to play, so that’s how it is.
The cavalry is returning for the Broncos, with key duo Darius Boyd and Tevita Pangai Junior also rubberstamping their comebacks from hamstring injuries by completing the captain’s run.
The return of Boyd will see Kodi Nikorima shift to halfback, while Benji Marshall, who has worn the No.7 jumper in the past fortnight, has been relegated to the interchange bench.
“Darius brings calmness and experience,” Bennett said.
“We are ready to play, we are ready to go. We have to believe in ourselves and if we do that, we can stay in the competition.
“It will go against us at certain stages and we have to handle that.”
The Storm are Brisbane’s bogey side. The Broncos have won just four of 23 clashes over the past 10 years, but of their four wins, three have been on Melbourne soil.
“They have had a fair bit of success but you have to look at how much success the Broncos have had,” Bennett said.
“We’re not going into this game to change who we are.
“We’ve had our victories. Melbourne are a very consistent team, we know what we are up against. A lot of these guys play Origin together so they know what they are up against.
“They are highly-disciplined, extremely well-drilled side, so they know their jobs.
“But there is a lot more in our team, I am just trying to get it out of them. The Penrith game was good for us, we didn’t control the ball as well as we should have but we defended great.
“We’re not a dour football team, we’ll be throwing the ball around.”
Source: Courier Mail
