An insert from a Paul Kent article. Some interesting points & perhaps why Sheens will go?
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/n...eague-as-bennett/story-fn7sho5b-1226046640325
Much of the incentive for Bennett to go to Newcastle, according to the amateur sleuths who ran thorough investigations into such things, was the incentive
to become the first coach in history to win premierships at three different clubs. That, and Bennett's brother Bob said so.
It is one of the few records left for Bennett, who just wins.
But if Sheens goes to Penrith he might just beat him to it.
Sheens has won premierships at Canberra in 1989, 1990 and 1994 and then again at
Wests Tigers in 2005.
He is the only coach besides Bennett coaching in the NRL today with premierships at two different clubs.
The figure thrown up for Sheens is $2 million for four years.
If that's right, the Panthers should wear a mask when they push the contract in front of Sheens.
Players don't win premierships any more, coaches do.
For many years there existed the myth of the super coach. It went that you bought the best coach and he went on and won you premierships, except it was a myth built on dust.
It was rugby league's attempt to look professional and match the overseas leagues such as the NFL and Premier League soccer. The truth was the best coaches were at the richest clubs, where they bought the best players who won the premiership.
Sheens himself was a victim of Super Coach Syndrome.
After coaching Canberra he was paid an island to take the job in North Queensland in the Super League of 1997.
The stay at the Cowboys was nothing but a long, slow walk down a long, dry gulch. The club finished 10th, 16th, 16th and 14th in Sheens' four full seasons at the club, the small print revealing that his highest placed 10th finish coming in a 10-team comp.
I wrote at the time that, by this point, football had clearly passed Sheens by. It was not one of my finer moments.
As it turned out, Sheens was ahead of the game. The tightening of salary cap rules was terrific news for the coaches who could actually coach. The ones who couldn't, not so much.
Sheens left North Queensland and with the NRL discovering more and more salary cap loopholes, he headed to the
Wests Tigers who were a rabble and in need of a senior coach with a little steel in his delivery.
The Tigers had finished no better than 10th in their four seasons, but more than that they were the kind of club that seemed to have been let out for the weekend.
Sheens changed all that.
With the salary cap evening out the talent like never before, Sheens showed the value in coaching.
He rebuilt the Tigers into what they are today, with some of the brightest talent in the game. They are a little different from the ultra-consistent sides such as St George Illawarra and Melbourne, but come finals time there is no team more dangerous.
Sheens showed that, in the age of the salary cap, coaches win premierships, not players. This is exactly why the Tigers are fighting to save Sheens. Why would they let this man go?
Sheens, 60, is the second oldest coach in the NRL.
Bennett, 61, is the oldest. With Brian Smith, the game's three most experienced coaches were still alive a week out from last year's grand final.
With so much thrust on finding energetic young coaches these days, these three have shown you don't only have to grow old coaching rugby league, you can mature.
All three have rebuilt, regenerated, reinvigorated their clubs.
That's what they do.
The Knights have acknowledged as much by paying Bennett an entire coal seam for his next three years.
Sheens is worth as much.
