MELTDOWN Wayne Bennett - Moves to Souths

Should Wayne Bennett's Contract be Extended?


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Here are some thoughts I have on the recent coaching fiasco as well as a few about professional sport in general:

I didn’t want to weigh in straight away. Mostly because all the facts weren’t known but mainly because coaching merry go rounds bore me to tears.

It was hard to escape all the nonsense though so what was all this nonsense for?

I was hanging back until one of the parties blinked first and mentioned “the fans.” I honestly didn’t expect that to be Wayne Bennett. It’s certainly not about the fans no matter what Bennett, Paul White and Anthony Seibold say. It’s about a couple of guys and their enormous egos and pay slips.

In fact, the sheer mind boggling contempt some of these people have for “the fans” is extraordinary.

Anyone else feel like they’re being treated like a mug? On a good day I suspect the Broncos and the NRL think of us as “useful idiots.” To be a successful sport we need a lot of gullible people who are going to fork out lots of money on tickets, memberships, and merchandise and television subscriptions and not ask too many questions.

It’s not about the try line. It’s about the bottom line. Sport is a business. I guess I have to accept that if I want to continue enjoying it.

It’s hard though. Rugby League has been batshit crazy for many, many months now and people think this is legit and totally above board. Normal even…

Professional sport in Australia is batshit crazy come to think of it. Look at the awful mess cricket is in. That Mundine fight the other night was the biggest load of crap I’ve seen in a long time and yet fans were genuinely miffed it turned into a fizzer. It was obvious for months fellas.

Anyway, back to the coaching caper - What are we trying to accomplish? Do we really need a new coach or a just a new hooker? A new captain maybe? All three perhaps.

I asked my colleagues at work the other day what was the point of this debacle and what it was hoping to achieve.

Full disclosure – they are all mad keen sports fans – almost to an unhealthy degree. The television is always on and it’s always on the sports channels. Entire weekends are devoted to the magic box.

Soccer, cricket, V8 Supercars, NRL, AFL, it never ends.

They said to win a premiership. Simple as that. Hook, mate, the ultimate goal is to win a premiership.

Sack the lot of them. Get twenty coaches in. Scorched earth mother fucker! By hook or by crook we are winning that damn Grand Final!

“Win a premiership…”

What does that even mean in this monumentally fucked up modern world? What would it mean to you personally? Would a premiership mean as much now as it did the earlier ones? Much like some of you older fans, I probably didn’t savour and appreciate the premierships we did win.

I guess it was because back in those days they were flying in so thick and fast! We didn’t have time to soak up one because the next year we had another one.

Glory days, well, they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Honestly, if the Broncos won one, I’d be happy for two weeks and then cricket season starts. An hour later, I’d probably be scrolling down Netflix looking for something else to watch lol. It’s gonna be a long off-season. Perhaps we need another barometer to measure a team’s success?

I’m not entirely convinced a premiership in the last few years would have saved Wayne Bennett. If you believe some reports he and Paul White aren’t on speaking terms and haven’t been for months.

My opinion is they’ve wanted him gone for a while now and just waited until he stepped out of line before sacking him.

Look at the sad case of Brian McDermott over in the English Super League. He was coach of the Leeds Rhinos. McDermott won four Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups and a World Club Challenge in eight seasons.

None of that saved him. A shocking run of injuries didn’t save him. He lost seven games in a row, several of them tough one and two point losses. Weigh that rough patch up with what he actually did achieve. It didn’t stop the wolves at the door baying for his blood.

It’s been 12 years. Are Brisbane fans getting a bit desperate?

If you cannot recall the sins of your past, you are destined to repeat them. We have signed yet another rookie coach. Yes, he’s a bit more credentialed and further along the arc than the other two were and he uses trendy words like “pedagogy” and it’s about momentum and all that jazz but he won’t have 5 years to get his shit together.

I’m not writing him off. Far from it. It’s way too early to tell. I watched a fair few Rabbitohs games this year. I like the energy, intensity and enthusiasm the side played with. If Seibold can bring that to the Broncos, who too often this year looked like they were just going through the motions, then it will be great for the club.

Having a team to be proud of would be good. Supporting a team where there’s very little difference between their best and worst performances regardless of the result would be great. A team that plays an entertaining and attractive brand of footy would be great to see. Seeing these ridiculously talented youngsters establish themselves as true first graders. Forward progress. It’s rugby league fellas, it’s meant to entertain us.

Premierships tend to look after themselves when clubs have their shit together. We’re not the fucking Brisbane Eels, we’re the Brisbane Broncos.

I want the people in charge to start acting like it again.
 
Go for it Bennett!

Take the useless pricks running this club for all they're worth, I reckon.
 
We did the dirty on him so just cut him his cheque and move on.
 
We did the dirty on him so just cut him his cheque and move on.

We did, did we? Seems like he did plenty on his own side as well.

He won't get anything.

And if he is so innocent and we fucked him over so badly, why is he going back on this? Surely he would have wanted his money then if he was so hard down by.

To me this looks like his plays failed so he wants something now.

"Oh no players, I don't want to go anywhere. The big mean club wants to kick me to the curb, I don't even want money.."

What? No players are following me?

"**** it, I'll go get my money now.
 
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**** me, I’m over Bennett. Just move the **** on mate
 
We did, did we? Seems like he did plenty on his own side as well.

He won't get anything.

And if he is so innocent and we fucked him over so badly, why is he going back on this? Surely he would have wanted his money then if he was so hard down by.

To me this looks like his plays failed so he wants something now.

"Oh no players, I don't want to go anywhere. The big mean club wants to kick me to the curb, I don't even want money.."

What? No players are following me?

"**** it, I'll go get my money now.

We pushed him out the door when he had a contract. He’s not going to immediately just shout lawyer up like it’s a movie. Takes time, and he’s within his rights.
 
We pushed him out the door when he had a contract. He’s not going to immediately just shout lawyer up like it’s a movie. Takes time, and he’s within his rights.
If it’s proven Bennett breached his contract, he has no rights to a payout of any kind whatsoever.

Indeed, if the above is true and the club wants to go after him for compensation, they’re well within their rights.
 
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We pushed him out the door when he had a contract. He’s not going to immediately just shout lawyer up like it’s a movie. Takes time, and he’s within his rights.

He has no rights if he broke his contract, and based on what appears to have happened that is very much the case.
 
He has no rights if he broke his contract, and based on what appears to have happened that is very much the case.

While I'm loathe to say it, Brisbane may not have any hard evidence. So far it's hearsay from players and different Souths officials. If Bennett rang them personally there will be call logs, but is that in itself evidence? He could say he was just calling to discuss the situation, purely as interested parties in what was going on. Also just as likely Bennett got a 3rd party to make the calls.
 
While I'm loathe to say it, Brisbane may not have any hard evidence. So far it's hearsay from players and different Souths officials. If Bennett rang them personally there will be call logs, but is that in itself evidence? He could say he was just calling to discuss the situation, purely as interested parties in what was going on. Also just as likely Bennett got a 3rd party to make the calls.

IMO, the reason it took two days to sack Bennett after his press conference was because the club was seeking legal advice on whether they had grounds to sack him without a pay out (at least for the coaching portion of his contract, they reportedly paid out part of his contract).
 
IMO, the reason it took two days to sack Bennett after his press conference was because the club was seeking legal advice on whether they had grounds to sack him without a pay out (at least for the coaching portion of his contract, they reportedly paid out part of his contract).

I'm sure that was the case. But just because the legal team believed they had enough on Bennett to sack him, doesn't mean the same conclusion will be reached in a court of law.
 
I'm sure that was the case. But just because the legal team believed they had enough on Bennett to sack him, doesn't mean the same conclusion will be reached in a court of law.
And it's also likely they sacked him even without reasonable grounds because they may have betted on it not being contested. A lot of businesses do that, breach the law and hope you get away with it... It's not like you get actual punishment for being dodgy, even knowingly. Just ask the banks. If you get caught out, you pay less than what it would have cost if you were following the rules in the first place.
 
And it's also likely they sacked him even without reasonable grounds because they may have betted on it not being contested. A lot of businesses do that, breach the law and hope you get away with it... It's not like you get actual punishment for being dodgy, even knowingly. Just ask the banks. If you get caught out, you pay less than what it would have cost if you were following the rules in the first place.

Pretty sure an ex-Bronco was developing some land, and council were holding it up over one tree. So he chopped it down, knowing the fine (as hefty as it was, in the hundreds of thousands) would be less than the costs of the development being delayed.
 
I've always had a great respect for WB yet haven't always agreed with his decisions. Having stated that I also generally conceded he was more likely to know better than I. However I have shifted on an issue after considering a lot of the claims of other posters. Primarily the cold hard facts and stats have made me rethink WBs influence on how we played in 2018 and 2017.

What stands out is our poor defence and why it wasn't sorted. Finally I agree that WB was responsible for that and now I can see that it was time for WB to step back or take on a new challenge. He should have been able to have his team create a brick wall defence but he apparently just couldn't make it happen. I hope AS can make that change whilst retaining our ability to score heavily.

I'm not going to hate on WB for that failing and I believe I know the true reason why WB was so stubborn towards the end. I am really excited by the change and yes, I now think the board was right to move WB on but believe only half the reasons were valid. I hope all three parties are successful, WB, AS and the Bronco's.
 
I've always had a great respect for WB yet haven't always agreed with his decisions. Having stated that I also generally conceded he was more likely to know better than I. However I have shifted on an issue after considering a lot of the claims of other posters. Primarily the cold hard facts and stats have made me rethink WBs influence on how we played in 2018 and 2017.

What stands out is our poor defence and why it wasn't sorted. Finally I agree that WB was responsible for that and now I can see that it was time for WB to step back or take on a new challenge. He should have been able to have his team create a brick wall defence but he apparently just couldn't make it happen. I hope AS can make that change whilst retaining our ability to score heavily.

I'm not going to hate on WB for that failing and I believe I know the true reason why WB was so stubborn towards the end. I am really excited by the change and yes, I now think the board was right to move WB on but believe only half the reasons were valid. I hope all three parties are successful, WB, AS and the Bronco's.
The main reason our defence suffered was Benny hated the wrestle and swore blind it would be the death of Rugby league. Sure we did our fair share of wrestling but Benny just could not bring himself to condone it and so as the other teams modernised we were overtaken as he refused to fully incorporate it into our defensive structures.
 

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