Secret sauce is a simple recipe
PHIL Gould once said that in all of his coaching battles against Wayne Bennett he could not recall being caught by surprise … but that didn’t make life any easier.
“Coaching against Bennett is not an intellectual battle,” Gould told News Corp.
“You know what you are going to get. His players are fit. They play for 80 minutes. They always defend well. They play for each other. They only have one or two plays but they do them relentlessly and they believe in them.
“When you play Bennett it is a battle of wills.”
What does it say about modern rugby league coaching that Bennett is blazing a path to glory on the back of basic beliefs that have served him well for almost 40 years?
It’s obvious, isn’t it? A lot of modern theories and methods are overrated and simply not as important as timeless truths like keeping things simple, playing for each other and playing for the coach.
Just over a year ago there was a coaching position up for grabs in the NRL where there were several ambitious mentors, including one from England, interviewed for the job.
On paper they had solid credentials but when they left the Zoom room a couple of long-serving internationals on the interview panel said things like “I couldn’t understand that gobbledygook … what on earth are they on about?”
They were making a simple game complex. That is what they were on about.
When Bennett took over at Souths Sydney, one of the first things he did was tell players not to bother about carrying pens and paper around to take notes about meetings which they had previously been encouraged to do.
He just knew it wasn’t their bag.
“Simple and direct are probably the two best words to describe him,” Souths captain Adam Reynolds said of Bennett.
Paul “Fatty” Vautin believes league’s urge to complicate things has swept into the commentary box where some younger commentators can revert to coach speak when – he senses – the fans just prefer it to be simple and straight.
Bennett’s unbroken 34-year stint at NRL level will end after Sunday’s grand final against Penrith when he will return to Brisbane and is set to be offered coaching duties for the 17th team set to enter the NRL competition in 2023.
He was already an unbackable favourite to land the role and the odds could have only shortened after he took aim at Broncos officials on Friday night, claiming they tried to undermine his negotiations with Souths.
New teams need to be any flavour but vanilla. They need selling points and drama and Bennett versus the Broncos would have it all.
You can just imagine the outcry if the new team stole a couple of Broncos key players.
The rivalry would be ablaze … and that’s before anyone has made a tackle.