Bennett: I’d love to coach new club
AN independent report has given preliminary backing to NRL expansion as super coach Wayne Bennett outlined his interest in spearheading a new second Brisbane team to take on the Broncos.
News Corp can reveal a $100,000 private study conducted by The Gemba Group, funded by 12 of the 16 NRL clubs including the Titans, has shown the code can generate additional revenue by adding a 17th team in 2023.
The multifaceted Gemba investigation has yet to be fully completed, but the early findings are a huge shot in the arm for ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys in his quest to combat the AFL by creating a fourth Queensland team.
V’landys met with the Queensland Rugby League and NRL club bosses on Friday with a leading chairman saying: “Expansion is going ahead 150 per cent … there will be a second Brisbane team.”
And V’landys’ strategy to grow the game has received another major boost, with the NRL’S greatest coach Bennett revealing his ambition to support expansion by setting up a second Brisbane franchise.
Bennett will return to Queensland to live when his Souths contract expires in November and says the challenge of building a new club from ground zero – just as he did at the Broncos in 1988 – has major appeal. Asked if he was interested in setting up a second Brisbane team, Bennett said: “I would be actually.
“Going back to the Broncos, we were very deliberate about the things we did and why we did them. It paid a huge benefit later on.
“They (a second Brisbane team) has got to be built from the bottom up and with a strong foundation.
“You’ve got to be prepared to take some pain and we took some pain in the early years.
“We should have won a premiership long before we did, but we got it right in the end (the Broncos won their first premiership in 1992).
“There is a fair bit of excitement about that, the ability to start something from scratch with nothing on the page and you can make it something special.”
Sources with knowledge of the Gemba report have told News Corp the first stage of the probe has outlined the promise of expansion.
According to the study, a 17th team can indeed generate more money – a revelation that will pique the interest of broadcasters Fox and Channel 9, who will meet the V’landys this weekend.
However, the Gemba report suggests the ARL Commission must be mindful of not eroding existing supporter bases at the Broncos, Cowboys and Titans.