NRL coaches too often pay the price for mismanagement of those who run the clubs
by: PAUL CRAWLEY
June 18, 2015 4:37PM
This year Wayne Bennett’s Broncos sit on top of the NRL ladder.
Last year, Newcastle had us convinced Bennett was too old to keep up with young coaches, that he had lost touch with modern players.
Geoff Toovey finished last year’s regular season with Manly on equal competition points with the Roosters, who were minor premiers.
Then they were shafted in the *finals, followed by all that off-field upheaval. Not strictly the coach’s fault.
Today, the Sea Eagles are last and Toovey is living on borrowed time.
People are quick to blame the coach when things go bad.
Look at Parramatta. The Wests *Tigers last year, and the years before.
The irony for Manly is before Trent Barrett was headhunted, the club was chasing Brad Arthur.
Last year, Arthur was the next big thing. Kieran Foran wanted Arthur to make him a better footballer. Anthony Watmough labelled him “the best” he had played under.
Then Arthur was stripped of his best player as Jarryd Hayne set off to chase his NFL dream.
Now Parra is struggling because there wasn’t time to cover Hayne’s late exit, and the club was already *struggling anyway. But take the best player out of any team and watch the hurt.
Arthur’s reputation has taken a hit as a result, as he battles through with a squad hardly of his own making.
His main issue is that he is still picking up the pieces from previous failed attempts to get the roster right at Parramatta. Ricky Stuart went in with a machine gun to clean out the joint, knowing it had to be done. And everyone wanted him gone, too.
It often takes years to adjust a *roster, especially in the salary cap era.
The problem for many coaches is they aren’t always afforded required time to make these decisions, and learn and grow.
This is the riddle that is this NRL coaching conundrum.
Now we are told Barrett will be a better man for the Manly job. Without taking aim at Barrett, what makes Manly so sure? He has virtually no coaching experience.
Maybe he will be the answer, time will tell. But did Toovey become a dud overnight or is it more the fact that he no longer has the forward pack to line up with his star-studded backline?
That he inherited problems not of his own making and, more importantly, was not given time to work through those problems, without having his power eroded by constant speculation.
Can a coach win without the right cattle, in the wrong climate?
The Tigers pinned their lack of *recent success last year on Mick Potter. Before Potter it was Tim Sheens.
Sheens won four premierships during his distinguished career. He helped mould some of the best coaches of the modern game along the way, and some of the best players.
But when Sheens fell out with *senior players, he took the fall. He never got another NRL job.
Again, there were bigger problems at the Tigers that needed fixing. They still need fixing.
This week, chief executive Grant Mayer walked from the Tigers. We wonder how Potter felt about that?
He didn’t even have the power to make decisions about who he signed, or who he employed as his assistants. He had knives coming at him from everywhere and didn’t stand a chance.
Now it is Jason Taylor’s job. At least it appears he has support.
We ask these questions today as we look back on Bennett’s illustrious career, and remember the story about how it almost prematurely ended before those seven premierships arrived.
Stop and marvel at what Bennett has achieved. A bloke who first started coaching in the early 1970s in Queensland is now in his 28th season in the big league.
No coach has survived longer, coached more games, won more games and won more premierships.
It’s worth noting the bloke Bennett goes head to head with on Sunday, Craig Bellamy, is the second-longest serving current coach. To put their careers in perspective, Bennett has coached more than twice as many games as Bellamy.
Bellamy is on 328, Bennett 721. And here Bennett is today, midway through his 65th year, still on top.
But as great a coach as Bennett has proved to be, he would have been long gone if it wasn’t for another great man, Paul “Porky” Morgan, the Broncos’ founding chairman.
After Bennett’s initial years at the Broncos, with limited success, many wanted him gone.
But he had a boss who backed his convictions. He even backed Bennett over another Queensland legend, Wally Lewis. From that point on, everyone knew who was boss.
It’s one of the most significant *stories of the modern era.
It came to mind last weekend when Paul Hogan popped up on Freddy’s pass the ball competition on The Sunday Footy Show.
Porky was also the guy who bankrolled Crocodile Dundee, that made Hoges an international hero. If it wasn’t for Porky, there would have been no Crocodile Dundee. And by now Bennett would have been shovelling hay on his farm instead of still coaching the NRL’s leading team, at 65. Too old?
When Bennett left Newcastle, he had his reputation questioned. Obviously, he never lost his ability to coach, just needed the right climate.
One thing is certain, not every coach will turn out to be the next Bennett. A coaching Immortal — the best there has ever been.
But how many coaches over the years have been killed off before their time, because the people who employed them didn’t give them necessary support to gain the experience needed to survive troubled times.
Like Jack Gibson said, success starts in the front office. Not with a coach’s head on the chopping block.
