How do Dragon's fans feel about Bennett?

[blaza88z]

Newcastle is such a proud club though, they really do develop their own players.. surely this much effect the Newcastle region, or do they too get caught up in the thought of success and will do anything and everything to get there?

I hate to say it but they're almost trying to buy a premiership, imagine if Des Hasler did this and took the 2 Manly halves with him, there'd be riots.

 

[Hutty1986]

The great man made all our dreams come true. Ge's a winner & he brought a winning culture to a club that was lacking that big time. Him taking players to Newie is a part of life, though he'll be an even bigger legend to me if he takes Fien and Prior as well

 

[God-King Dean]

What club/coach/agent/player doesn't use the system to their best advantage?

EDIT: Apart from Parra, obviously.

:lol:

 

[Usain Bolt]

They love him, he gave them their only premiership

 

[jonno_knights]

Wonder if he'll cop the same headlines as Brian Smith did when he did the same thing that Bennetts doing?

He isnt bringing in Polynesian imports, so probably not...:sarcasm:

 

[thommo4pm]

I was annoyed at first about Scott, but no rules have been broken so no real ill feeling towards Bennett or Newcastle.
He got us a premiership.

 

[Hoekstra]

Looking forward we surely have some cap space after off loading Cuthbo, Boyd etc and missing out on Moltzen.

If Doust cant match a bid for King I'll start to wonder if Chrisptopher Skase's ghost is in charge of our books.

 

[Canard]

He brang players to the club through legal means that were off-contract?

Does it really matter if they played for the Dragons, Roosters or Essendon Hawkers?

 

[Pierced Soul]

Newcastle is such a proud club though, they really do develop their own players.. surely this much effect the Newcastle region, or do they too get caught up in the thought of success and will do anything and everything to get there?

I hate to say it but they're almost trying to buy a premiership, imagine if Des Hasler did this and took the 2 Manly halves with him, there'd be riots.

the knights have a large junior base and i thought that tinkles was going to bring home their juniors. it's a bit hard to do that if you bring all the dragons to newie instead.

obviously the lack of success the knights have experienced in recent times show a lack of either development or talent and Bennett wants to bring in players he (rightly or wrongly) feels can dot he job. when des left the beagles he took half the coaching staff didnt he?

brad fittler followed gould to the roosters. this has been going on for ages. canterbury went and signed 4 broncos, the roosters were signing up dogs forwards....

the system we use isnt ideal, but it's not just cos of scott going to newie, i'm more concerned how long out maloney signed with the roosters

 

[bottle]

It's not the first influx of Saints players being bringed into Newie, they seem to love ex Dragons up there. As for Saint, scratch that, Sir Wayne. Well, gotta love the Premmy, but it ain't the first time he's f*cked us up, is it?

 

[eozsmiles]

I don't follow the Dragons.
I have no problem with what Bennett is doing. It is within the rules and if he rates those players highly then he can sign them. It is probably part of his long term plan that he has to p!ss on the pile in year 1. If anyone is wondering who wears the pants up in Newcastle, Wayne is answering the question now. Tinkler wants to bring locals through or bring them home. Bennett doesn't care where they're from, he just signs them. What is Tinkler going to do? Sack him? This is different to the guys training his race horses. He's sacked plenty of them. But he has never had the number 1 trainer as head of Patinack Farm. In Bennett he has the best.

What I find interesting is that the Broncos lost plenty of experience and talent around the time Bennett left. It has been reported that Bennett rang the Dogs and suggested they grab Hannant and Ennis. He took Boyd himself and I think Petero left around same time. Maybe part of the reason he left was that the salary cap was going to give Brisbane a couple of tougher years, maybe he just didn't care what happened to the Broncos once he knew he was leaving and didn't do much to help re-sign those players. I don't know.
Now he has left the Dragons and taken 4 players with with him and more to come. He also released Costigan and Jeremy Smith a year earlier. Boyd, Scott, Cuthbertson, Costigan, Smith, McKinnon, and maybe King. That's a few players to have lost on the decisions of a coach who isn't there anymore. Particularly when most of those players have ended up where the ex coach.

Who knows what will happen in 4 years time. Curious to see what sort of squads Hasler and Cleary get hold of in the next year or two.

 

[bottle]

Raises interesting questions though. Do any of the young guns coming through the Knight's ranks feel discouraged by the influx of external talent, or is it no different there to any other club at the moment, or at any other point in time? Or, conversely, are they more excited by the prospects that potential success might bring? If some are pissed off at maybe not getting a shot, might they look elsewhere? If so, the longer term effects could damage future possibilities for Newie. Their own junior ranks could be ready for a raid or two.

Of course it's all about immediacy, and a Premmy in the shorter term might be worth the price of some opportunity cost.

 

[gUt]

Yep, if the young talent is good enough and they've got a halfway competent agent, someone will snaffle them.

 

[rnb11]

I still dont see the fuss, Boyd was always going to go where Bennett goes, Cuthbertson is not exactly a player the Dragons will miss but everyone is using him to make Bennett look worse, McKinnon was already going home to Newcastle before Bennett became coach, who else is there? Beau Scott is one of the best backrowers on the market, oh but he's from the Dragons so Newcastle shouldnt be allowed to try sign him they should just sit back and let another club have him. Its pathetic the way people are carrying on over it.

Newcastle have some of the best juniors in the league, they'll get their chance when they're ready and what better way to blood them than when theyre surrounded by a star team.

 

[Springs]

I know at least Snowden and McKinnon were originally from around Newcastle so it's not like he's filling the team with imports. Not like Brian Smith was anyway. Combined with bringing Tahu and Buderus back he seems to be going alright with the local junior-import mix.

 

[_Johnsy]

So far the Dragons fans responding here have been fair and measured. But you don't have to look far to see the fans who aren't either of those. As pointed out to me by Packy, the sort of posters that when Bennett recruited them for the Dragons it was because the players wanted to "play under the best". Now when players leave to join him elsewhere, it's time to shit on the great man's name.

That is a large minority of dragon fans, interesting that you have conveniently forgotten that there were probably the same amount of bronc fans laying the boot in when he left and took 2 players (Boyd & Emmett) from Brisbane. Some of the fans (on the Dragons forum) are a very, very small percentage of dragon fans. Some reacted with passion initially & vented. i think you'll find that they have calmed down somewhat almost a week on. Probably the same way some of the broncs fans did when he left Brisbane. :roll:

It's a business and professional game, no feelings whatsoever, the coach and players now leaving are doing so for more coin. Completely understandable.

 

[perverse]

putting scott into the team produces something like this:

1. Boyd (import)
2. McManus (Knights junior)
3. Tahu (Knights junior)
4. Naiqama (import)
5. Uate (Knights junior)
6. Gidley (Knights junior)
7. Mullen (Knights junior)
8. Snowden (Knights junior)
9. Buderus (Knights junior)
10. Cuthbertson (import)
11. Houston (import)
12. Scott (import)
13. Costigan (import)

14. Hilder (import)
15. Edwards (Knights junior)
16. Fa'aoso (import)
17. McKinnon (Hunter boy, but technically an import)

so that's 9 (or 8) of our top 17 that would be imports. i think that's a reasonable mix for any professional football team, to be honest. Fa'aoso was an unwanted journeyman until he came to the Knights and made good.

i'm assuming that Zeb Taia is on the outer and is planned to make way for Scott at this stage. that could change, but for the sake of making this list and this post, i have assumed such.

i think what that shows, more than anything, is that the Knights have struggled to produce forwards over the past 10 years.

 

[perverse]

i'd also like to point out that basically all of our depth is also home grown, with a few exceptions like Korbin Sims, Kyle O'Donnell, Evarn Tuimavave and Kev Naiqama (these are the only 4 that i can pick off the top of my head).

 

[Firey_Dragon]

I can see why some dragons fans are pissed off at him. He delivered a premiership, cleaned up our shop and made us a much more professional team. Doesn't matter who stays or who goes, those effects don't just disappear immediately once he leaves.

It looked like a few players no longer had the passion playing under him last year, but that's to be expected when team unity is such a driver behind his success. Scott got a large offer from Newcastle when they need depth in the 2nd row, I don't begrudge Bennett for taking him, I am also thankful the club didn't spend overs when we have quite a lot of talent in the area.

This games a business, anyone who wouldn't do the same would struggle to find any success in it.

So in short, Bennett delivered what we wanted, he's moved on and conducting business as he should. I'm thankful for the premiership we have, now he is no different to any other coach in the game, he is the opposition.

 

[gUt]

That is a large minority of dragon fans, interesting that you have conveniently forgotten that there were probably the same amount of bronc fans laying the boot in when he left and took 2 players (Boyd & Emmett) from Brisbane. Some of the fans (on the Dragons forum) are a very, very small percentage of dragon fans. Some reacted with passion initially & vented. i think you'll find that they have calmed down somewhat almost a week on. Probably the same way some of the broncs fans did when he left Brisbane. :roll:

It's a business and professional game, no feelings whatsoever, the coach and players now leaving are doing so for more coin. Completely understandable.

You're probably right but I think after 21 years losing the only coach we'd ever had to be replaced by a reserve grade standard, angry garden gnome at the behest of someone who was doing a bad imitation of a CEO did tend to be a shock and we were probably a bit justified. But I don't think you'd find too many fans who didn't say, thanks for the memories Wayne and left it at that. (I dunno about this place, I wasn't here.)

As for losing Boyd it was not that big a deal at the time, at least compared to the Dogs buying almost our entire forward pack anyway. Boyd blossomed at the Dragons, at the Broncos he was (imo) a hack winger who ran soft and had shitty hands.