I back you on that one. All nearly all league reporters in all media are sh*te. Particularly the papers they are extremely sh*te.
Stanaway is crap but at least one's coverage of league is getting better.
Thanks for the back handed compliment. You know, even from behind the scenes I may just have something to do with One's coverage.
I see the latest thing you guys are hammering me over is the 'divisive' comment regarding Bennett about six months ago. I don't know why I feel compelled to justify myself but here goes (I sense your backlash as I type). I have a family member who worked for the Broncos until recently. I have a heap of family living in Brisbane. Bennett alienated himself at the Broncos despite being able to have the job for life. Now I'm sure you'll criticise the writer of this piece or find some other way of running me down but try to stick to facts rather than just get personal. It's only here to illustrates the way Bennett came to quit. There were plenty of different things written but I'm not prepared to pay the subscription fee for the SMH or Courier Mail to find the specific articles I want to illustrate this point better. However, this still does the business. Even the sceptics of you who don't trust the media, and it appears there are many of you, should concede that a bit of this OPINION piece at the end of my 'rambling' just might have a bit of truth to it...
Divisive definition: "creating dissension or discord"
Regarding the 'yesterday's man' comment.
Brian McClennan beat Bennett in the 05 Tri Nations and he quit. At the time I was questioning why the NZRL's number one target appeared to be the man who's career was ended by McClennan, rather than go back to McClennan himself. Obviously a couple of days later McClennan ruled himself out to return to the Kiwis job but at that time he hadn't even been approached. Bennett also will never be considered to coach the Kangaroos again. Therefore, he must surely be 'yesterday's man'. And as a personal opinion, I don't think we should be crawling over glass to get an Aussie to coach the Kiwis. It just seemed desperate from where I stood. Even Bennett in the end felt it was better that a kiwi coached the Kiwis because a kiwi knows the mindset better. There's also no doubt Bennett would have been a PR disaster for the Kiwis trying to repair a battered image. Sure it's the coaching and results where it counts but one and two word answers to the media (and therefore the fans) wouldn't have gone down well in this country.
Here's this article anyway.... I'm readying myself for your 'idiot' 'wanker' replies as I type :shock:
BRISBANE Broncos coach Wayne Bennett is a paranoid conspiracy theorist from way back.
If he reads this column, he will no doubt put it down to being another part of the alleged News Limited-driven campaign against him.
What he won't see - and has never been able to see - is that he has many weaknesses which have driven away dozens of his closest allies over recent years.
Bennett loves to liken himself to former Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy. He sees himself as the doyen of league coaches - a man who takes pride in being his own person, who reads the game like no other before him and who engenders a fierce loyalty among his players.
The fact is that Bennett is nothing at all like Sheedy. Bennett has won six premierships in his 20 years with Brisbane, but the similarities with the great Essendon master begin and end there.
Kevin Sheedy and Wayne Bennett are different in one very crucial way. Bennett did not remain loyal. Sheedy did.
The scenes which come to mind when Kevin Sheedy bowed out of the coaching game were the stuff of fairytales. He embraced James Hird, stood down with dignity and didn't burn a single bridge in the process.
Bennett's former charges - the players who delivered him the premierships - can't say the same for their old coach.
It should be pointed out that these players would quite literally have died for Bennett. Superstars of the game, all of them, they never questioned his judgment or the tough decisions he made when it came to shedding their teammates. They stuck to him through absolutely everything.
The fact is that these days, only a resilient handful remain close to Bennett. Most of them can't bear to talk about him. Others just walk away when his name comes up to save them themselves from having to tell the truth.
He didn't blink when he sacked one of the club's most loyal sons, former player and coach Kevin Walters. Just last season, he let Petero Civoniceva walk out of the club after 10 seasons. The big champion was forced to uproot his young family and move to Penrith for the remainder of his career.
In the AFL, that is like Sheedy letting Hird go to Perth.
Civoniceva has been there since he started playing first grade when he was a 20-year-old plucked out of suburban footy in Brisbane.
Hard-nosed Broncos fans say Bennett's brutal decisions have delivered where it counts. He has made a point of getting teams into finals nearly every year he has been at the club.
But somewhere along the line, Bennett lost sight of the values he claims to treasure most - loyalty, mateship and a sense of family.
In the past few weeks, Bennett has mustered a variety of supporters from the rugby league media and fed them a lot of rubbish about being forced out of the club by the club and its owners, News Limited.
None of his cronies have mentioned that it was, in fact, Bennett who soured the relationship he had with his chief executive, Bruno Cullen. The club had basically given him a lifetime contract, but that wasn't enough.
The Broncos coach agreed to terms with the Sydney Roosters two years ago. He told the Sydney club he would only join them if the story didn't break in the media. Bennett had not told his former great friend, Cullen, or anyone else at the Broncos about his plans.
The story did break and Bennett pulled the pin on the deal. So began a campaign of misinformation from the Bennett camp (so-called "close friends" were always quoted - never Bennett himself).
The bottom line is that Bennett should have been frogmarched by the Broncos board on the very day the story broke. If he had applied the same principles to himself that he claims to have held so dearly for all of these years, he would have resigned.
But no. Bennett stayed on.
Then came the stories of secret payments from third parties which Bennett admits he has been taking for many years. He blamed News Limited for those too.
Last year, Bennett was awarded a life membership at the Broncos - an honour bestowed on only a select few. He walked on to the stage, took the award from his old mate Cullen and walked off without a word.
The gobsmacking arrogance of his behaviour didn't go unnoticed by many players who had bled for Bennett in their playing days.
They cringe when they speak of their old coach now. One said to me just last week: "How could I have ever been so stupid to fall for his crap?"
He's not the only one. Wayne Bennett will leave the club on his terms at the end of 2008. Bennett's growing list of detractors wish that he hadn't been given that opportunity.
The good news is that the Broncos can start to welcome back some of those former champions when he eventually leaves the building.
:hg:
