NEWCASTLE’S incapacity to honour the final season of Wayne Bennett’s $1 million-a-year contract is set to hand the master coach back to St George Illawarra, which tabled a three-year offer for his second coming last month.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Dragons CEO Peter Doust reached out to Bennett as recently as a fortnight ago, on the same weekend as Newcastle’s previous match against Parramatta.
The seven-time premiership winner has been in limbo since control of the Knights was handed-over to the NRL in May, around the same time St George Illawarra told former coach Steve Price his services were no longer required.
The Dragons have been pushing hard for Bennett to rejoin the club ever since, having not made the finals following his departure at the end of 2011. The most successful coach in rugby league history delivered the joint venture its maiden premiership the previous season, and enjoyed a free reign over the football department under Doust.
It’s believed the Dragons offer is a three-year deal worth more than $3 million. Doust wanted an answer prior to the Origin series finishing, and Thursday’s announcement that Bennett would not be at Newcastle in 2015 indicates a response is getting closer.
Bennett informed the entire Knights team of his intention to move-on on Thursday morning, but selected senior players sensed he was preparing to leave several weeks ago.
The 64-year-old said he was departing because of embarrassment over Newcastle’s performance under his watch, but there are also commercial reasons for the move.
Running a tight rule over the club’s books, NRL bean counters decided the Knights could not afford to keep Bennett on the same terms he had enjoyed under former owner Nathan Tinkler.
That left Bennett with the choice of whether to accept a sizeable pay cut and stay, or look elsewhere. Given his standing in the game, there was always going to be interest outside the Hunter.
Bennett’s next move has effectively boiled down to a choice between his two former clubs — St George Illawarra and Brisbane.
The Broncos, however, are not likely to offer Bennett a head coaching role as they have Anthony Griffin contracted until the end of 2015. It’s understood Bennett’s potential role at Brisbane would be coaching director. That leaves the Dragons as overwhelming favourites to snare him.
Their rich offer for Bennett is at odds with financial hardship that has struck the joint venture over the past 18 months, during which time it has been forced to rely on a $1.5 million loan from the NRL. The Dragons have also been forced to shift four matches from their spiritual bases in Kogarah and Wollongong, to ANZ Stadium, for financial gain.
A well-placed Dragons source has claimed a private benefactor is funding the Bennett bid. St George Illawarra also made a huge — and narrowly unsuccessful — play for Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy last year.
Caretaker coach Paul McGregor is likely to win the job on a permanent basis should Bennett also knock them back. “At the time of announcing Paul McGregor as caretaker coach ... we also advised that we would be undertaking a detailed process to identify the head coach for next season and beyond,” Doust said. “We don’t believe it appropriate to speculate on our progress.”
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