I'm all for bagging the media, but that's a misleading thread title. The article was merely using Bellamy to draw a connection and explain why Kevie choosing a basket case like the Gold Coast Titans would be a silly move on his part. I didn't see anything about the article trying to dismiss Bennett's influence on Kevie.
As far as Craig goes, he's the best in the business. He's one of the few coaches where you begin to rate him against the best of all-time and while I believe he has a lot of red marks against his name, he isn't a lesser coach because history will remember Jack Gibson more fondly.
If Bellamy didn't want to touch the Wests Tigers and Walters because of the current state of the Titans and want to go with more stable options I can understand that and don't blame them for it. But I must say I have more respect for Wayne Bennett and rate him higher because he has shown willingness to take on differing levels of assignments of the code at different times throughout his career(and not just later in his career either), regardless of if it will potentially tarnish his coaching record. I still regard him as the best coach in the game and If I was in charge of a new franchise he would be the coach I would be seeking for with real hands on experience of how to develop a club franchise from the beginning up.
We are talking about a coach who:
Took Souths Magpies out of the doldrums they had been in the early to mid 70's to grand finals appearances against Valleys(1979), Wynnum Manly(1984) And defeating what many people regard as at the time a NSWRL standard side Wynnum Manly outfit in the 1985 as underdogs.
Took on the difficult challenge of overcoming a resurgence of the NSW Blues in State of Origin football after their win in 1985 when the blues started to take the series seriously, though the side lost his initial series of 1986 3-0 he turned the tide with series wins in 1987 and 1988.
Co-Coached the Raiders in 1987 with Don Furner, helped develop a lot of the foundation of the success and talent base that was coming for the then recently created club and took them to their first ever grand final, a lot of the Queensland players that came to the club were developed directly under Bennett in the Brisbane competition as well.
Helped build a club from the foundation up in 1988 with the entry of the Brisbane Broncos that would become a powerhouse outfit of the game, showed he wasn't afraid to take on tough decisions that could have easily have cost his job at the Broncos in the best interests of the club(Wally Lewis captain sacking, shifting to lock and not re-signing him). Winning the Panasonic Cup of 1989, won world cup challenge against Wigan in England which no other club upto then had achieved. Delivering 6 premierships out of 7 appearances and have rarely not been in a position to make the finals and turned around one of the darkest moments in the club history with the retirement of club Legend Allan Langer and the likelyhood of a wooden spoon for the first time into a finals appearance putting them well placed for their 2000 premiership. Though people will argue under Bennett the Broncos have had superior talent to most clubs during their existence. Also like Bellamy he has also been able to get the best of players not so talented in his history such as John Plath, Chris Johns, Michael Devere, Philip Lee, Terry Matterson, Mark Hohn, Gavin Allen, David Stagg etc and turned around careers of players like Shane Perry, Harvey Howard, Adam Blair etc.
Took on the job of rebuilding the Queensland Maroons side in 2001 after it's most comprehensive flogging in SOO history in 2000. Introduced many new faces to the squad and took a huge risk by bringing Allan Langer back from the Super-league competition for the decider for which turned out to be one of the most amazing masterstrokes made at that level. Queensland would go onto holding into their trophy in 2002 in a tied series and then lost 2-1 in 2003.
Took on assistant and advisor role to New Zealand Coach Stephen Kearney to prepare them for the upcoming Centenary test against Australia and the 2008 Rugby League World Cup which the Kiwi's won.
Went to St George Illawarra Dragons and started the restructuring process in 2009 that would see the Merged club finally deliver it's maiden premiership and two minor premierships.
Newcastle Knights, Definitely the sore-mark on his career and he has to face his fair share of the blame(combined with the mess the club was with Nathan Tinkler's involvement with the club) but you don't hear people mention that in 2013 he took the club within one match of the 2013 Grand Final either.
Took on coaching role of England for 2 season in 2016, for which he was criticised for doing so, will be interesting to see how the side fairs in this years World Cup.
