How can you say that with a straight face when he has had arguably the best spine in the history of the game for almost the entirety of his coaching career? Smith is one of the greatest to ever lace on a boot. You can maybe make that argument when Smith/Slater move on, but right now there is absolutely zero evidence to suggest he can adapt his game plan to different playing groups. He has had literally no significant change to the core part of his team for 15 years. Cronk is the first departure, and already they have went down a notch from looking unbeatable, to just being very good.
Not to mention he got embarrassed at origin level, by no less than the 3 superstars who have led him to premiership after premiership*, which is at the very least a bit of evidence that the players override his coaching ability is it not?
If he can adapt post Smith/Slater, he will cement himself as a truly great coach, if not, there will always be questions marks about whether he got carried by 3 truly once in a generation players, even if he did play a huge part in getting them to the top.
Not looking to take sides in this debate; but in trying to argue for Bennett (and at the same time, against Bellamy) you’ve essentially just documented Bennett’s coaching history.
In the 90’s he had the absolute cream of the crop in many positions and was very successful. In the 2000’s the success started to become less frequent and in the 2010’s the success has all but dried up (talking premierships, because let’s face it, that’s the only measure of success that isn’t subjective).
I don’t think anyone could argue that Bennett would have close to the record he has without Lockyer, Langer and Walters playing for long periods of time in spine positions.
One could even argue the players that made up the other positions in those teams were of a higher calibre than the respective Storm teams (Renouf, Sailor, Tuquri, Tallis, Webcke, Lazarus, Gilly, Thorn, Berrigan, Hodges - the list goes on).
Bennett has a great record, no doubt. There is also no doubting players love playing for him and he can get the very best out of most of them. So for that reason, for being so successful and for being at the top for so long he deserves nothing but respect. But to think it’s purely because he’s some sort of player-whisperer is foolish.
The players at his disposal have an enormous amount to do with it too, just like Bellamy and his success.