Is Bennett past it?

[Vic Mackey]

As others have said, he is trying to do what he did at stgeorge with Newcastle. It makes no sense as Newcastle have some great individual players and he is coaching the talent out of them. Bennett isn't a one trick pony as some of his broncos teams were extremely entertaining. It seems he is just copping out here and Doing what he thinks will get a quick premiership, however it's failing miserably.

 

[rabbitohs95]

Put Waddell in the Souths team and see how they go.
If Issac Luke was the starting hooker for Knights, they would be top 4 material.

Fair point, Luke was the catalyst in our win against Newcastle, took every chance he got to break the line which lead to points.

I agree that Newcastle need a new hooker and maybe a couple more props that can bend the line and come off the bench for impact, similar to what we have with George Burgess.

 

[Swarzey]

We don't need a new hooker. We had the perfect hooker on the bench who lifted the team when he was on the field, our main hooker is injured and another back up was injured last week.

Bennett just needs to do what he did to Housten and drop the shit f**k.

 

[Apey]

Raiders fans on here are probably laughing, we thought we got them good giving them Joel Edwards but they took it up a notch by giving us Waddle.

 

[Noname36]

To be honest although Edwards is as shit as Waddell, at least with him we could have dropped him by now given the fact that we have a few 2nd row replacements. We're stuck with the other useless f**k. Well played Raiders, well played.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

It was about this time in 2006 everyone said he was past it.

 

[Jono078]

It was about this time in 2006 everyone said he was past it.

They were first when they started their losing streak, and still finished 3rd. We could be out of the 8 after this round. In fact it's a very good chance.

 

[Saint69]

If and when the Knights get their full strength team on the paddock they can make the top 6 and from there they may have a chance,any team in the NRL will have their chances ruled by injuries and so it goes for every team,no year is the same apart from the fact certain teams will have their years ruined by injuries.

 

[tigertiger]

The Knights continue to f&;k up my multis every week.

 

[aqua_duck]

I don't know why you keep taking them, I've stopped taking them in my tipping comp

 

[Misanthrope]

If he's some kind of coaching genius, this is all obviously a ploy to lull people into a false sense of security. That's the only excuse I can find for the team playing such unimaginative, lazy football.

It's like he's told every single creative player in the team to simply pass the ball one out or run from dummy half. No enterprise, no adventure, and no flair.

It would be hard to watch us lose every week, but it's harder still to watch us lose in such an uninspiring way.

 

[blaza88z]

I always thought that Bennett was made to look above average as a coach when he was at Brisbane mainly due to the fact that he always had a star play maker in the team right from the get go, you go through some teams that have had a star play maker, once that play maker is gone, the team goes through a bad patch well with Brisbane (the team I support).. Lewis, Langer, Lockyer combine that with all the other rep players he's coached in his time at Brisbane, the Brisbane team was always strong

He went to St George, a team that already had the cattle to win the comp (particularly when Gasnier came back), Soward was in career best form, Boyd grew another leg at fullback

Then he goes to Newcastle, Tinkler throws the bank at him .. you have to question at what stage does motivation for success take a back seat to motivation for finances, look at it this way:

When Folau went to AFL, how many people actually believed he would be successful knowing full well he didn't have the frame to play the game and probably didn't grow up aspiring to play the game but he knew no matter what happened, success or failure he was going to get a large pay packet for it

People are going to give it to me about my next comment but it's what I always believed.

When Bennett left Brisbane, he sold himself to better his financial situation, I don't think his heart has ever been in it ever since he left. The football he had Brisbane playing was far far more thoughtful and entertaining then the football the Saints were playing and obviously to what the Knights are now trying to play. I know he won a premiership with the Saints even if it was the most boring football you've ever seen at time. Some guys leave clubs because they can get more money but they still have that drive to better themself, I don't think Bennett could better himself as a coach, he's done it all.

Then you look at the contracts some of these guys are on at Newcastle, they all expire at about the time when Bennett's contract expires. I don't know what his plans were when he went to Newcastle but if it's to "change a culture", that's hard to explain given the timing of all the contracts. Particularly the signing of Gower stinks of a coach who is pulling out everything he's got.

How does a guy go from wanting to mentor Lockyer to coach Brisbane for life after Bennett, to going to Newcastle and signing guys where their contract will end the same day his contract ends. That doesn't seem too much of a "change in culture" to me. Seems like a "buy a premiership and get out of there" deal.

This isn't the coach he once was, in my opinion.

 

[Knights_Premiers]

Agree with a lot of the stuff mentioned about Bennett trying to recreate his success with the Dragons and that nothing has improved since he has been at the Knights.

One point I will add is that I always thought that he'd instill professionalism into our club. A team that would only accept the highest standards and strive to be the best. Take a look at the Roosters last night. They won by 14 yet Trent Robinson, Pearce and Maloney were absolutely filthy about their defence when they were interviewed. Those guys pride themselves on defence and anything less than the highest standard is unacceptable regardless of the result.

Tonight the Knights lose a game they should have won and Bennett is 'happy with the effort'. I don't know what we're striving for. You'd think a great defence judging by the outdated grinding style he has the boys playing. But no mention of the schoolboy misses on Dugan when the game was on the line.

 

[aarondoyle]

He may be past it, but at this stage I'd have him back at the Broncos in a heartbeat.

 

[aqua_duck]

He has a negative opinion on wrestling so we don't wrestle, there in lies our main problem. You simply can't play a tight, grinding style of football if you don't wrestle, it's the equivalent of taking a Toyota Yaris into the Paris to Dakar rally

 

[Amadaca]

Loving every minute of his failure (& that is certainly what you must call it at this stage).

 

[the dude]

If only he came to Souths instead of Maguire

 

[Bengal]

He has a negative opinion on wrestling so we don't wrestle, there in lies our main problem. You simply can't play a tight, grinding style of football if you don't wrestle, it's the equivalent of taking a Toyota Yaris into the Paris to Dakar rally

Yeah, the wrestle reminds me of Union mauls, their on-going big boring pile-ups of days gone by. The purists loved them but they turned newbies away from the game. The wrestle is Leagues equivalent. The knowledegable understand and appreciate their significance, everyone else finds them at best - amusing, more often than not though - boring.

As for Benny, the man's a legend, end of...

 

[Loudstrat]

The football he had Brisbane playing was far far more thoughtful and entertaining then the football the Saints were playing and obviously to what the Knights are now trying to play. I know he won a premiership with the Saints even if it was the most boring football you've ever seen at time.

If you are talking about the 90's pre Super League Broncos, I agree. Once he found his man love for Heather, they were as dour as Saints ever were. Lockyer was the only spark they had, although they had quality go-to men like a younger Hodges, Tallis and for a while Wendell and Lote.

Saints might have been boring, but they were effective. Melbourne are boring, Canterbury at their best are generally boring, but effective.

Bennet had the best resourced club in history at Brisbane. At Saints he had a potential premiership winning squad - assembled by Brown and to a lesser extent Waite and Farrar. Bennet trimmed their flambouyance and brought in Costigan to add steel. And he found himself in a GF against Brian Smith! Thats like being in the Stawell Gift against Ozzy Osbourne ffs!

F*ck the old grump off, elevate Stone, save $750 k per season and stave off the inevitable Tinkler inspired bankruptcy!

 

[Misanthrope]

So that raises the question: who should replace Bennett at the Knights?