Bennett not afraid of Griffin hoodoo
WAYNE Bennett has dismissed Anthony Griffin’s success against him as “rubbish” as the Panthers coach attempts to salvage Penrith’s season by beating the man he was sacked for.
Griffin will return to Suncorp Stadium tonight for the second time since being punted by the Broncos in 2014 to accommodate the return of Bennett.
Bennett has won seven NRL premierships, including six at the Broncos, in a 769game career which has yielded 477 wins.
Griffin has only coached 135 NRL games (52.6 per cent winning record) and was axed after four years in charge of the Broncos when Bennett decided to return to Red Hill.
But the head-to-head match-up between Bennett and Griffin tells a vastly different story. Of the 10 NRL matches they have faced off in, Bennett has won just one, with eight losses and a draw.
The anomaly is by far Bennett’s worst winning percentage against any NRL coach.
Bennett was bemused when asked numerous questions about Griffin yesterday and dismissed his rival’s record.
“Is it all about Anthony today?” Bennett asked.
“What are we on about today? He sits on the bench like I do. We have no influence at all.
“At the end of the day … rubbish.”
Griffin guided the Broncos to a preliminary final in 2011, beating Bennett’s Dragons in the semis, but an eighth-placed finish in 2012 and 12th in 2013 put him under immense pressure.
The retirement of Darren Lockyer in 2011 proved tough for the Broncos and Griffin to overcome, but he did usher in a new wave of talent in the likes of Ben Hunt, Josh McGuire and Andrew McCullough.
Broncos veteran Sam Thaiday said Griffin may not have had the opportunity to put his stamp on the club.
“This is probably the hardest club in the whole comp to coach,” he said. “There is a huge expectation and aura around the club.
“We’re always a team that needs to succeed otherwise heads are going to roll within the players and staff.
“That’s the standard that the Broncos have set over many years. ‘‘We live and die by them. “It’s kind of hard when you’re not in a job long enough to really give it a crack.
“He brought a lot of those players through our under-20s and now they are regular first graders playing 100-150 games for our club.
“He’s been a huge part of the development phase of our team. He can definitely put his hand up and take credit where it’s due.”
Penrith have been one of the biggest disappointments of 2017 after finishing sixth last year in Griffin’s first season in charge.
The Panthers were consid- ered premiership chances with their talented young squad but have barely fired a shot with two wins in eight rounds.
Penrith have been in Queensland since Monday preparing for the game, having beaten the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium last season with a similar approach.
Griffin is under pressure to extract some success from a capable team and Bennett said the Broncos would not take Penrith lightly.
“They’ve got a very talented football team,” he said.
“If you don’t respect that you’re lying to yourself. They are very capable. They’ve just had a bad start to the season and that can happen.” BYE rounds are fast approaching and your SuperCoach squad needs to be able to get through the carnage as efficiently as possible.
That means planning early to limit the damage of missing your best players.
Every NRL team has two byes but some escape the preOrigin mire and they are the perfect ones to load up on between Round 12-19.
Eight teams will miss rounds 12, 15 and 18 but the Rabbitohs, Eels and to some extent the Sharks, Roosters and Bulldogs have ideal draws for you to capitalise on.
The cardinal and myrtle break in Round 13 and 16, so unless you’re paranoid about injuries to rep players, get on board.
Sam Burgess is a certainty for me, maybe even this week while he hovers around a reasonable price.
The Eels are not flush with SuperCoach superstars, but Kaysa Prichard, Nathan Brown and Clint Gutherson would be more than handy additions.
The Sharks are off in Round 13, but then the tough Round 18. The Bulldogs and Roosters both miss the difficult Round 15, but then Round 19.
So after Round 15, the Roosters, Bulldogs and teams who have played both byes, such as the Panthers, Sea Eagles and Knights are ripe for the picking.
Perfect 8, as the name suggest, does not operate during the bye rounds. My first attempt at it was a total failure, picking a grand total of zero topscorers in a reasonably low-scoring round. Only three players scored triple figures.
Unsurprisingly, no one got 8/8, largely because there was no indication of Panthers backrower Corey HarawiraNaera (averaging 84.5 points after three games) being a late inclusion before the start of the round. The jackpot is now $165,000.
The rookie starred with 113 points, which was at least great for his value.
In fact, it was a great weekend if your name was Corey. The Oates variety was No. 2 after his two tries for the Broncos and Mr Norman of the Eels No. 3 for Round 8.
Of the Cairns Crusaders, experts Anthony Minichiello (1170) and Tom Sangster (1135) stood out, but I wasn’t too far behind with 1127.