Bennett favours expansion

Super coach backs second NRL team for Brisbane

RUGBY LEAGUE: The NRL’s greatest coach, Wayne Bennett, has broken his silence on the expansion debate to declare it’s time for the code to introduce a second Brisbane team to coexist with the mighty Broncos.

As NRL boss Todd Greenberg prepares to launch a wideranging review of the code, Brisbane foundation coach Bennett says rugby league can no longer ignore the power of the southeast Queensland market.

The expansion issue has gained fresh momentum in recent weeks, with Cowboys coach Paul Green backing a second Brisbane team and ARLC chairman Peter Beattie declaring the NRL must expand or die.

Bennett had preferred to stay silent on the highly-charged expansion debate, but the super coach emerged as a powerful voice yesterday.

If anyone is best placed to appraise whether Brisbane is ready for a second team it is Bennett. He delivered all six of the Broncos’ premierships during 25 years of service before joining South Sydney this season.

Greenberg will deliver a report on the code at the end of this year, including his views on expansion, and Bennett is adamant Brisbane can sustain a second team for the next broadcasting deal in 2023.

“Brisbane is ready for a second team. It needs a second team,” Bennett said.

“There are so many areas in southeast Queensland that can sustain a second Brisbane team.

“We can have a Brisbane team playing every week at Suncorp Stadium – how good would that be?

“The reality is no club in Sydney at the moment wants to give up their identity or their place in the game, so that’s the issue for the NRL.

“What I do know is that the NRL should take control and give a new (Brisbane) team two or three years to be ready to get quality players without diluting the product.”

Rugby league’s last experience with a second Brisbane team ended in tears.

The South Queensland Crushers entered the big league in 1995 before being killed off at the end of the 1997 season as part of peace talks following the bitter Super League war.

The Broncos have since enjoyed a 31-year monopoly in the key southeast Queensland market, but Bennett scoffed at suggestions a rival city team would erode Brisbane’s status as an NRL powerhouse.

“The Broncos won’t be affected,” he said. “They’ve had a 30-year headstart.”