Wayne Bennett will be paid more than 2 million dollars to coach the Dolphins for 3-4 years. Formal announcement to follow in the next 48 hours.
V’landys:
“Wayne Bennett is critical to all of this. One thing we want is the Dolphins to be competitive in the first year. Someone of the calibre of Wayne Bennett will make sure the Dolphins will be very competitive in the first year. He will mould and develop the players. He is one of the smartest football brains that I have met. He is light years ahead of most people and his football knowledge is extraordinary. We believe the team has to be competitive from day one and Wayne Bennett will ensure they are competitive.”
Abdo:
“We wanted assurances the team was going to be able to acquire coaches, assistant coaches, footy staff and players that were of the highest quality. So it was important for all the bidders to demonstrate to us who the personnel were for that. Wayne Bennett is a really experienced coach so he would be an asset to any team. But that is a matter for the Dolphins and Wayne to comment on.”
Bennett:
“I will say this - I am certainly interested in being part of a new Brisbane team and I will be happy to have talks with whoever that may be. I have no bias to any bid. If any of the three bid teams want to talk, I’m available. I’m a free agent right now.”
“No-one has asked me about helping Queensland. I can’t commit to something no-one approached me about. If someone wants to pick the phone up and talk to me about helping them that’s up to Billy Slater and what his plans are. I’ve had some offers to work with some coaches and do some consultancy, but I haven’t decided on anything yet. I will wait for this expansion process goes and where it finishes up.”
“We still have another 12 months before the second Brisbane team starts their pre-season. That’s plenty of time to sign players and get things right, you would be laughing. I won’t be coaching next year. You would be building the team and putting the structures in. If it was Redcliffe, for example, you would work with their state league squad a little bit, but I won’t be a full-time coach next year. I know exactly what to do because I did it with the Broncos."
“With the Broncos, I walked out of Canberra (as co-coach) and straight into the Broncos job. Canberra played in the grand final in late September and I went up to the 33rd floor of that massive building in Eagle St in Brisbane where the stockbrokers are. Paul Morgan had his stockbroking business there and that was my first office at the Broncos."
“You can negotiate with players from the 1st of November, so it’s plenty of time. The original Broncos had a huge headstart because they had all the Brisbane-based stars like Wally Lewis, Gene Miles, Greg Dowling and Greg Conescu who were all Origin players. They had a ready-made type of team. This team will have be brought together by guys out of the 16 clubs. That’s the big challenge. But the beauty of it all is you have a clean sheet of paper. You have a blank canvas. You aren’t walking into someone else’s problems. You can build your own culture and create your own culture."
“The most important people to employ are the staff right across the football department, from trainers, to assistant coaches, everybody who is involved in football.”
“The Broncos won’t be affected. They’ve had a 30-year headstart in this market. There will never be another club like the Broncos, simple as that, so the marketplace in Brisbane can be great if a second team comes in with the attitude that they will create their own identity. A second Brisbane team cannot look over their shoulders at the Broncos."
“It’s magnificent for Queensland and the rugby league fans up here to be getting another team. It’s also great for the Queensland Origin team. It means there will be more opportunities for Queensland kids and we need more representation for the Maroons. It will give Origin more certainty as time goes on.“We have so few players in the NRL who are eligible for Queensland, it’s around 22 per cent, so we need the Maroons to stay competitive in the Origin arena.”
Former ARLC chairman Peter Beattie famously said the NRL must expand or die, and the Dolphins joining the competition in 2023 is likely only the first step in growing the game.
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McHunt