The Wayne Bennett Super thread!

[Anonymous person]

where did i say that i think their roster is one of the best in the league? for someone who supposedly only speaks in facts, youre sure talking a lot of rubbish.

and again, i didnt say top 4 - i said PUSHING for a top 4 spot. meaning around the 5-6 mark, and with a good win percentage. 7th with 50% is not pushing it. in that way, they went worse than i predicted even though they came 7th.

"ON PAPER" means nothing else is included, just the names on paper. on the paper, the knights should be better than they went this year and especially last year. i dont know how anyone could argue against that. what you dont seem to be understanding is that i/we werent doing our predictions based on the team lists "on paper". on paper the knights should come in near the top 4 because they have almost their entire starting team with rep experience. my predictions arent based on that, theyre how i think the team will go based on how theyve been playing recently. last year they sucked, i thought theyd go better this year, so i put them a few spots above where they finished last year.

youre seriously trying to read faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar to much into what was said before the start of the season in a predictions thread. the bennett fanatics have been known to do stuff like that though, so im not surprised.

 

[Huge]

AP, what you are trying to do is demean a great coach, belittle his achievements and denigrate his record. It's a constant. You talk up the individual players and do so selectively. You honestly believe anyone could have done what WB has done if given his team lists. Never mind no one else thinks that, you are the only one who can see the truth. So far he has GFs with two clubs but rather than see that as meritorious you point to what they became after his departure, looking for negatives as usual.

Even though most would see this years achievement as excellent you highlight last years failure to make the semis as though it was the only important thing. It was his first year there and he had to change the culture, hardly an overnight job. That year was not a wasted year, it was a year to sort the wheat from the chaff. What is most telling though is the respect players have for him and not just his current ones, it's the former players. You cannot please all but WB satisfies more than most. His coaching record is unequalled and his respect is legend.

The team in Newcastle is average and no more. It's absolute garbage to suggest his team is top draw with many players at footballing retirement age. He has done more with less.

 

[Browny]

APs worst nightmare, Wayne Bennett beat Bellamy, the Storm are out of the finals and wonder boy slater played shit house.

 

[Big Pete]

Does the Knights victory on Saturday make Bennett the best coach right now?

No.

Does it boost his stock?

Yes.

It wasn't even the fact that they won but how they did so. They went in with an obvious gameplan to play through the backs and it worked wonders against a side that knows how to play finals football. The performance proved that Bennett isn't past it in a coaching capacity and still has plenty to offer the game which is great to see.

 

[Broncoman]

TBH I don't find Newcastle's win on Saturday a huge surprise as I thought the Knights had a fairly good chance of winning as they seemed to have a better team across the park but Bennett's coaching did play a major part in the victory and it shows he still has something to offer.

 

[Anonymous person]

They went in with an obvious gameplan to play through the backs and it worked wonders against a side that knows how to play finals football but are a shell of their former selves and have been playing poorly for months

ftfy.

 

[Big Pete]

Fixed by a sore loser maybe - my description was definitely apt.

 

[Anonymous person]

i just elaborated on your description with what anyone whos watched any melbourne games the last few months would know.

 

[Big Pete]

Pull the other one AP you might have some better luck.

Fact is Bennett coached a side that wasn't expected to win and defeated the defending premiers on their home turf.

Credit where it's due.

 

[Kimlo]

Didn't the Storm almost score 70 points two weeks in a row like a month ago?

 

[Browny]

That was against Parra

 

[KingWebcke]

the Storm have been pretty average the last few weeks: they lost badly to Manly, looked all out of sorts against the Tits and lost to Souths. And they've looked uncharacteristically impatient most of 2013; they have been rushing plays and throwing the ball away in a completely un-Melbourne like fashion

but that doesn't change the fact that they were clear favourites for the game against Newcastle. They still could have and should have won ... a bit of poor form doesn't detract from the quality of Newcastle's play and a well executed gameplan designed to deal with Melbourne's dominance in the middle

 

[Kimlo]

They also put 68 on Canberra, sure they're not the best teams but they're amongst the two highers scores this season and in the last quarter of the season, a team that is fading doesn't usually hit 64+ twice within a month.

 

[Dexter]

. despite the fact that his team finished on more losses than wins.

lololol wrong, good to see it can happen to anyone lol

 

[KingWebcke]

a team that is fading doesn't usually hit 64+ twice within a month.

I've never heard of that as a rule or piece of conventional rugby league wisdom ... I think if you just watched Melbourne's last three games it is pretty self-evident that they were in a rut.

I think you're massively overcomplicating things when you ignore their form in the preceding three weeks and instead go back 4-5 weeks prior and try to draw conclusions based on victories over a team that was in the middle of self-destructing (Canberra) and a team that will go down as one of the least competitive teams of the decade (Parra).

 

[Dexter]

To be fair he was answering a claim that they'd been off for a couple of months.

 

[KingWebcke]

To be fair he was answering a claim that they'd been off for a couple of months.

my apologies to broncospwn then. I still think the Storm were well out of sync over the last month but I think it is a bit harder to claim that they been off for a lot longer than that.

they haven't been anywhere near as clinical this year as in the past but they were still playing very good football for most of the season.

 

[Anonymous person]

To be fair he was answering a claim that they'd been off for a couple of months.

The storm played 26 games this season.

First 13 matches the storm won or drew 11 of 13.
Second 13 they won or drew 6 of 13.