Next Broncos coach

[Broncapz]

only if you disregard his second stint and focus on what he did over a decade earlier

2nd, 5th, 3rd and 6th. Doesn't seem so bad now honestly.

 

[Foordy]

2nd, 5th, 3rd and 6th. Doesn't seem so bad now honestly.

notice the downwards trend there ... not to mention the back to back thrashing we received in the finals. with the loss to the badly out of form and under-strength Dragons the final straw.

the question isn't whether we should have moved on Bennett ... it is whether we got the right coach to replace him?

 

[Porthoz]

The thing is though, he's been volunteering himself to transition from Head Coach to a more hands off role for a few years now, it's just that the people running the club at the time had fallen out with him and were determined not to let him be a part of the process anymore. It's not as though Wayne thinks he can go forever and hasn't ever entertained stepping back before so I'm sure he understands better than anyone what that means for him on a day to day basis.

That's revisionist history. He was offered that exact position before the whole drama ensued...

 

[Accept]

only if you disregard his second stint and focus on what he did over a decade earlier

Yeah, his second stint was a complete disaster. A 64% win rate, two top 4 finishes including a top two, 4 playoff appearances, a GF berth, 2 GFQ appearances. This after the club was on it's knees after six years of mismanagement during the Henjak/Hook era. You don't have to like the guy but you have to acknowledge that the place is in vastly better shape when he is around.

 

[broncsgoat]

Yeah, his second stint was a complete disaster. A 64% win rate, two top 4 finishes including a top two, 4 playoff appearances, a GF berth, 2 GFQ appearances. This after the club was on it's knees after six years of mismanagement during the Henjak/Hook era. You don't have to like the guy but you have to acknowledge that the place is in vastly better shape when he is around.

Nah mate Bennetts just got a big ego and thats all there is to it.

 

[Dash]

Nobody could argue now surely that Paul White didn't completely shit the bed. It's not about Wayne's ego, he earned the right for a one year extension which would be wrapping up now and would be transitioning into the role with the club in a healthy state. This is solely about the gross negligence your poster boy White oversaw that has us at rock bottom and the absolute laughing stock of Australian sport.

Do you really think that Wayne would we wrapping up now? More likely he'd have asked for another extension and we'd end up in the exact same scenario as we are now, only 2, 3 or 4 years later.

 

[Cult]

notice the downwards trend there ... not to mention the back to back thrashing we received in the finals. with the loss to the badly out of form and under-strength Dragons the final straw.

the question isn't whether we should have moved on Bennett ... it is whether we got the right coach to replace him?

Downward trends happen as players get older. He had the Payne Haas’s, Fifitas, Coates’ and the rest waiting in the wings to replace those players going downhill. Very rarely do teams stay at 2nd every year. We were getting worse, but not to the level the haters try to spin it. Other teams were getting better, we were getting slightly worse with an eye on the future. It was an error no matter how you try to spin it

 

[ostin86]

I honestly can't really fathom where the idea that we have to leave Wayne in the past has come from?

The guy is one of a handful of people who could claim to have quite literally built the Broncos as we know them today. He's certainly poured a significant part of his life and career into the place and without a doubt would have a desire to see us succeed long into the future after he's no longer around. To say that person should never again have a place at the club on principle (what principle that is I don't actually know - we shafted him, not the other way around remember) I think is foolish and not based in good objective reasoning. Wayne should be as welcome to apply for any role at the club like any other person in the game and if he is honestly the best person available for that role then I think his Broncos history should only help him in securing a role, certainly not something to be used against him.

I agree that in 2018 I felt it was time to go in a new direction for a Head Coach. Bennett himself even acknowledged that if they could get Craig Bellamy it would serve the club well in the long run and even offered to be part of that transition if the management could get Bellamy over the line. Even when that fell over he still agreed to help us transition to a new Coach that he would actively help to prepare to take over from him. The man obviously recognised even then that he cannot Coach forever and the club needed to think about the long term. What transpired since then was essentially us telling him to get fucked and the fallout from it suggests that the board and management themselves allowed personal ego and grudges to dictate that Wayne had to be removed from the place entirely. I think with the benefit of hindsight given the decisions they made following that, you could well argue they got that call wrong.

If a Coaching Director/Director of Football is a role that can add value to the club, then I can think of almost no person on Earth who would be better placed to fill that role at the Broncos. It would need clear guidelines around who was responsible for what and Wayne would obviously need to respect the Coaches authority and ability to make decisions, but I'm very confident Wayne himself knows he's not coming back here to Coach the football team himself and I think with so many runs on the board we can give him the benefit of the doubt to understand what the role would involve and how he would fit into the place going forward.

If the guy wanted to be a head Coach then he would no doubt still be one of the most in demand going around today, so if he's even considering a role like this it very likely tells you he's ready to take the next step in his career so I'm not sure I buy the whole 'Wayne is too hands on and overbearing' story line. As a Coach I'm sure it's true because that's what he's paid for, but he knows this time around he's filling a different role with different responsibilities.

If Ikin's argument is that no such role should exist, then I'm prepared to accept that, but I think if he was truly objective and there were no other factors at play then the prudent thing to do would come on board first and evaluate the place before making a call on if the role even warrants existing, let alone who should or shouldn't fill that role going forward. He might well be spot on in his evaluation, but personally I'm not a big fan of using your position in the media to rule someone out of a hypothetical role at place you don't work at using the authority of a job you don't actually have.

Personally I don't have an issue in him being involved in some capacity. I just don't want him involved to the extent where we are reliant upon him and we have the potential to fall apart again if he steps back in any way.

Far too many people attribute the majority of our success to Bennett, i take issue with this. As you say his involvement from our inception is undeniable, certainly the man deserves his share of credit. We achieved our success through how the club was run, great coaching and most importantly a great number of champion players.

If he comes back either as a coach, or a coaching director you can almost guarantee the narrative will be that we that we got there because of Bennett, and we would be nothing without him.

 

[broncsgoat]

Do you really think that Wayne would we wrapping up now? More likely he'd have asked for another extension and we'd end up in the exact same scenario as we are now, only 2, 3 or 4 years later.

I have no reason to believe otherwise. It was the plan he put forward, Souths have already signed Demetriou so there's nothing to suggest we wouldn't have done the same. The board clearly didnt want JD, but the board are clearly fucking special in the head so they probably got that one wrong as well.

 

[Broncapz]

notice the downwards trend there ... not to mention the back to back thrashing we received in the finals. with the loss to the badly out of form and under-strength Dragons the final straw.

the question isn't whether we should have moved on Bennett ... it is whether we got the right coach to replace him?

Completely disagree. Bennett was doing well enough not to get sacked at any other club.

His depature was controversial, so I'd say there is plenty of question weather we should have moved on Bennett at that time instead of giving him the extra year he goddam earnt.

Even in our lean years, life has always been more optimistic when Bennett is at the helm.

 

[ettybay]

Yeah, his second stint was a complete disaster. A 64% win rate, two top 4 finishes including a top two, 4 playoff appearances, a GF berth, 2 GFQ appearances. This after the club was on it's knees after six years of mismanagement during the Henjak/Hook era. You don't have to like the guy but you have to acknowledge that the place is in vastly better shape when he is around.

And he isn't priming the Rabbitohs for a tilt at the wooden spoon exactly either is he?

 

[Foordy]

Completely disagree. Bennett was doing well enough not to get sacked at any other club.

His depature was controversial, so I'd say there is plenty of question weather we should have moved on Bennett at that time instead of giving him the extra year he goddam earnt.

Even in our lean years, life has always been more optimistic when Bennett is at the helm.

There was no intention to sack him, we just weren't going to renew his contract there is a difference.

and while the middle of the road clubs would have likely renewed his contract with his results ... the top teams would have thought twice about it especially giving the way our season ended 2 years running and our downward trend during the regular season

 

[Broncapz]

There was no intention to sack him, we just weren't going to renew his contract there is a difference.

and while the middle of the road clubs would have likely renewed his contract with his results ... the top teams would have thought twice about it especially giving the way our season ended 2 years running and our downward trend during the regular season

God I miss those days!

 

[Kooly87]

if that was the case, then he would be our coaching director right now.

Paul White and the board no longer thought it was best he be head coach, but obviously wanted to keep him around the club. which is why the wanted him to finish his contract and transition into a front office (coaching director) role. his ego couldn't handle that the club no longer wanted him as coach, so he left, playing games on his way out, so he'd get fired and not have to coach the final year of his contract

Nonsense. The club made the call to punt Bennett long before any of that unfolded when they pursued Bellamy in the first place. They'd already decided Bennett wasn't in their future plans and just hadn't bothered to tell him. Remarkably, when he found out Bennett even conceded himself that this was a good thing for the club to do and he was happy to help that transition take place after his deal was up in 2019 but he was always planning to see out his deal. I think the actions of the Broncos suggest they had plans for Bennett to go sooner than that though because they immediately went to interviewing Seibold as soon as the Bellamy deal fell over. Asking Bennett to shove off to be replaced by the best Coach in the game in Bellamy is one thing, but to move to punt him for the likes of Seibold or even Walters, well that's another matter entirely and only a fool could be surprised that Bennett saw it that way too.

Bennett, not the club, was the one who proposed the original plan to transition his replacement into the role. He wanted to finish his current deal up to the end of 2019, take another year in 2020 and during that season get everything set up for Jason Demetriou or another replacement to take over in 2021.

The club kept Bennett in the dark for something like 5 weeks IIRC then sent him a letter to offer him an Admin role. The longest serving Coach the club has ever had, who has contributed far more to this place than your heroes Paul White and Karl Morris have ever contributed themselves, was sent a letter in the mail to offer him a back office role, even after he'd been the proactive one that engaged THEM about succession planning and getting a replacement for himself in place. It was insulting to say the least and no matter how much you are in love with Paul White, even you surely couldn't argue Bennett deserved more respect than that.

As for the games Bennett played, well shock horror, arguably the greatest gamesman in the NRL didn't take his brushing lightly and had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to handle exactly that. Paul White and Karl Morris were utter fools to ever entertain the idea that Bennett would shut up and take this sort of disrespect lying down without throwing anything back himself. In that sense, I shouldn't be surprised by the foolish underestimating of Bennett because Paul White has quite a history of grossly underestimating people and mishandling critical situations, so I guess his dropping the ball on Bennett is just another one to add to the list.

 

[broncos4life]

Nonsense. The club made the call to punt Bennett long before any of that unfolded when they pursued Bellamy in the first place. They'd already decided Bennett wasn't in their future plans and just hadn't bothered to tell him. Remarkably, when he found out Bennett even conceded himself that this was a good thing for the club to do and he was happy to help that transition take place after his deal was up in 2019 but he was always planning to see out his deal. I think the actions of the Broncos suggest they had plans for Bennett to go sooner than that though because they immediately went to interviewing Seibold as soon as the Bellamy deal fell over. Asking Bennett to shove off to be replaced by the best Coach in the game in Bellamy is one thing, but to move to punt him for the likes of Seibold or even Walters, well that's another matter entirely and only a fool could be surprised that Bennett saw it that way too.

Bennett, not the club, was the one who proposed the original plan to transition his replacement into the role. He wanted to finish his current deal up to the end of 2019, take another year in 2020 and during that season get everything set up for Jason Demetriou or another replacement to take over in 2021.

The club kept Bennett in the dark for something like 5 weeks IIRC then sent him a letter to offer him an Admin role. The longest serving Coach the club has ever had, who has contributed far more to this place than your heroes Paul White and Karl Morris have ever contributed themselves, was sent a letter in the mail to offer him a back office role, even after he'd been the proactive one that engaged THEM about succession planning and getting a replacement for himself in place. It was insulting to say the least and no matter how much you are in love with Paul White, even you surely couldn't argue Bennett deserved more respect than that.

As for the games Bennett played, well shock horror, arguably the greatest gamesman in the NRL didn't take his brushing lightly and had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to handle exactly that. Paul White and Karl Morris were utter fools to ever entertain the idea that Bennett would shut up and take this sort of disrespect lying down without throwing anything back himself. In that sense, I shouldn't be surprised by the foolish underestimating of Bennett because Paul White has quite a history of grossly underestimating people and mishandling critical situations, so I guess his dropping the ball on Bennett is just another one to add to the list.

Move on.

 

[Dexter]

If I'm making assumptions about age and personal lifestyle factors impacting Wayne as he continues to age (factors which affect basically ever human being on the planet at some point) then I think it's probably fair to say that you and Ikin are also making some assumptions about Wayne and his ability to recognise his new role and the need to give Walters the space and scope to make his own mark on the place.

I think it's especially presumptuous because realistically Bennett is still probably one of the most in demand Coaches in the game and if he WANTED to keep Coaching full time as a Head Coach, he almost certainly could do exactly that at any number of clubs. The fact he's the one openly talking about taking a different and presumably less hands on role on, which is the same offer he made with Demetriou and the Broncos two years ago as well mind you so it's not as this is out of the blue, then I think one could reasonably assume Wayne, after several decades in the Head Coaching game, knows in himself he's really ready to move into the next chapter of his career.

Well **** me, I would think the son in law who has known the guy for 20 plus years would have a fair idea, I think I will go with his take.

 

[Kooly87]

Well **** me, I would think the son in law who has known the guy for 20 plus years would have a fair idea, I think I will go with his take.

Sure, I mean the significant personal biases that are widely known public knowledge can just be ignored if you like I guess? By all means help yourself to all the sand you need to cover up that head of yours and just pretend it isn't real.

 

[Kooly87]

Move on.

I'm more than happy to move on when someone can present a tangible reason why we need to permanently move on from Bennett in all capacities besides just an arbitrary 'his time is over and we can't go back' line of dribble.