Will Wayne Bennett lead Newcastle to a Premiership?

[Danish]

No.

Bennett is not a messiah coach. He enjoyed the fruits of an incredible roster for the first 20 years of his career, esepcially at the broncos were at times he had 8-10 starting australian players in his 17. Even at the dragons he managed to get in there when they still had a host of origin players.

He is a good coach and players play better under him than they do elsewhere, but he is no miracle worker. the knights simply do not have the cattle for him to work with right now (and are unlikely to un the next 2 season IMO. Bennett won't sign on for another stint).

Now if Bellamy went to the knights I think that would be another story. Bellamy has proven time and time again that as long as he can keep a core of 3-4 great players together he can then whip even the most average player into a world beater. Look at their prop rotations from the last 5 years. Complete duds on their own and when at other clubs, but destroyed all before them when at the Storm.

 

[Springbokfly]

No.

 

[mongoose]

Nah, the Knights defence will be quite solid but they don't have the points in them to trouble the top sides. They need a Glenn Stewart type player and someone better than Gidley in the halves.

 

[BKT]

I just don't understand how you could possibly think we're 'lower' than we were at those times.

Oh dear,.... Rod....pls read what I posted.

I said it was the lowest that "I'd" felt about the club, not the lowest the club had been.

 

[I Bleed Maroon]

Not with that squad. That squad should be 2 and 0 on top of the ladder right now.

 

[Rod]

Oh dear,.... Rod....pls read what I posted.

I said it was the lowest that "I'd" felt about the club, not the lowest the club had been.

The two seem pretty related to me, especially for a long-time and committed fan such as yourself.

But by all means explain what it is that makes you feel so low about the club currently.

 

[BKT]

The two seem pretty related to me, especially for a long-time and committed fan such as yourself.

But by all means explain what it is that makes you feel so low about the club currently.

Ok, we have a coach of extremely high repute and ability, and even after ! full season with our team, the coach still does not know which team will turn up on game day.

Now surely for all of Bennetts experience , if he can't get to know the mood of the playing group, we have buckleys chance of being a success this season.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Make Melbourne play for no points, cripple Manly with injuries, and Bennett will take them all the way.

 

[Rod]

Ok, we have a coach of extremely high repute and ability, and even after ! full season with our team, the coach still does not know which team will turn up on game day.

Now surely for all of Bennetts experience , if he can't get to know the mood of the playing group, we have buckleys chance of being a success this season.

Fair enough. Although it still amazes me how much stock people put in just 2 games.

If we're still dishing up Manly performances every other week in 3-4 months time, I'll be on your page, but until then, I'm gonna put the wrist-slitting on hold.

 

[lockyno1]

Hard to tell. Hard to see how you can win a comp with the awful kicking game of Gidley at halfback though. Still think Gidley could be a gun hooker, no idea why he isn't played there full time.

 

[_snafu_]

No. Even Bennett can't turn a pile of shit into pavlova.

 

[perverse]

It's not the squad or the coach that is the issue, it's the culture of the place. We've had a Jekyll and Hyde approach to our football for a long, long time. It was easy when Joey was about, just give him the ball as much as possible and we will win more often than not, regardless of which team turns up around him. Without him... it results in us looking great one week, and awful the next. We've had 2 consecutive brooms through the place to try and eradicate it. This obsession with Gidley as a key player in a squad will continue to hurt us more than not. It works when he's in an ad-lib role like fullback... but in a role where you need a cool head and structure, like halfback, he is always going to fail. Whenever we need a cool head, Gids - as the captain, takes it upon himself to provide it... and he's the most hopeless bloke in the team under pressure. Couldn't make a correct decision to save himself under the pump.

Bennett was quoted in our Manly press conference as saying "the hardest thing about coaching the Knights is you don't know which team is going to get off the bus". This is a sentiment that has echoed through recent years... and I don't know where the answers are if Bennett doesn't. It's distressing, not necessarily because it is the case, but because we've done all the right things in trying to rid ourselves of it and still seemingly come up empty handed.

Still, we always get pumped at Brookie, regardless of form. It's a long season, and I doubt that loss will define it for us, as much as many in this thread would love it to. It's actually not a bad kick in the pants for us to have after the Tigers game. If a loss like that were to happen, I'm glad it was Round 2, not Round 22.

Will Bennett get us a premiership? Don't know... if he gets us playing consistent football, then possibly.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Not with that squad. That squad should be 2 and 0 on top of the ladder right now.

Huh? So the squad is not good enough to win a premiership but is good enough to be 2-0 instead of 1-1?

 

[Fire]

Make Melbourne play for no points, cripple Manly with injuries, and Bennett will take them all the way.

Yeah f**k wit that's why the Dragons dominated all of 2009 and the first half of 2011.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Round 5 2001: Newcastle get flogged 42 - 8 by Brisbane. Joey played and the Knights are 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw after that round

Fast forward to GF day 2001: Newcastle beat Parra, the red hot favourites of that year, convincingly

Anyone using that Manly loss to justify writing of our season is off their rockers

 

[Garts]

Not whilst he plays Gidley in the No 7. Although where else do you play him now that Bennetts toy boy Boyd is in the No 1? FB is easily Gidleys best position.

 

[Jason Maher]

Make Melbourne play for no points, cripple Manly with injuries, and Bennett will take them all the way.

Still butthurt about this, eh?

 

[perverse]

It's a leadership vacuum, really. Only this year have we started to have the kind of leadership group that you would expect a first grade team to have... with some actual WINNERS as leaders. I must say that our team, in general, doesn't have a culture of getting behind their leaders, either. Joey and Bedsy had to drag our team kicking and screaming to more than a few victories solely off their own respective bats.

We're getting closer to the right mix, don't know if we're there yet... it's too early to tell.

 

[Rod]

Hard to tell. Hard to see how you can win a comp with the awful kicking game of Gidley at halfback though. Still think Gidley could be a gun hooker, no idea why he isn't played there full time.

I don't get everyone's obsession with Gidley likes he's going to cost us a premiership. Bennett won a premiership with a Soward/Hornby halves combo, neither are world-beaters and given time to gel Mullen and Gidley arguably could repliate what they did.

I agree Gidley's best position is hooker, although I realistically don't see Bennett putting him there in 2013. As for his kicking game, agreed it's not good, but Mullen does 80% of our kicking anyway.

 

[Knightmare]

Gotta love Round 2 Premiership predictions. If the Knights lost in a close game (or even managed to beat Manly) at Brookvaledump then this thread wouldn't even exist.

I remember in the opening round of 2006 Brisbane got pumped by the Cowboys at Suncorp, then a fortnight later struggled to put away a pretty bad Sharks outfit. Watching the game, I thought "Brisbane won't win another Premiership as long as Bennett is coach- they're out of match-winning ideas in attack beyond simple one-outs from dummy half."

6 months is an eternity in Rugby League...