Wayne Bennett (rugby league)

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Wayne Bennett

Personal information
Full name	Wayne James Bennett
Date of birth	January 1, 1950 (1950-01-01) (age 58)
Place of birth	Warwick, Queensland, Australia
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
	Warwick Toowoomba Brothers Ipswich Southern Suburbs
Representative teams
1971-1973 1971	Queensland Australia	7 (8) 0 (0)
Professional clubs coached
1976 1977-1979 1980-1982 1984-1985 1987 1988-2008 2009 -	Ipswich Southern Suburbs Brothers Southern Suburbs Canberra Brisbane St. George Illawarra Dragons
Representative teams coached
1986-1988 1998 1998 2001-2003 2004-2005	Queensland Queensland Australia Queensland Australia
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only.

Wayne James Bennett AM (born 1 January 1950) is an Australian rugby league football identity. A former Australian Kangaroos player, he is the current coach of the multiple premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos and a former coach of the Queensland and Australian representative sides. Bennett holds coaching records for most Grand Final wins and longest time with a single club in Australian rugby league history.

[edit] Early life

Wayne Bennett grew up in a working class family in Warwick, Queensland with an alcoholic father who deserted the family when he was eleven years old, forcing Wayne to enter the workforce at an early age. He has two sisters and a brother. Before becoming involved with the Queensland Rugby League on a full-time basis, Bennett worked as a police officer. He remains an avowed non-smoker, non-drinker and non-gambler.

[edit] Playing career

From 1970, Bennett played football for Warwick, and also in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership for Past Brothers, Ipswich and Souths. He was a talented winger and represented Queensland 7 times between 1971 and 1972. Bennett also played two tour matches for Australia on the 1972 tour of New Zealand.

[edit] Coaching career

Wayne Bennett has been one of the most successful coaches in Australian Rugby League history and has experienced success with the last three teams he has coached.

[edit] Early years

Bennett began coaching in Ipswich in 1976, before moving to Brothers and Souths. After the births of his 3 children, Bennett had a break from coaching. He returned in 1983 as coach of the Queensland Police Academy under 18's which he took to a premiership. He used this time to implement his trademark extensive basic skills and slide defence drills. He then took over the Souths job and took them to the 1984 grand final, which they lost to the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls. Revenge was to come a year later when the Bennett-coached Magpies defeated the Seagulls 10-8 to take the premiership. In 1986 Bennett made his coaching debut for the Queensland State of Origin team

In 1987 Bennett was appointed co-coach of the Canberra Raiders, helping guide the side to the Grand Final which the team lost to Manly 18-8.

[edit] Brisbane Broncos

Bennett was appointed to be the first coach of the Brisbane Broncos when the club was formed in 1988 and, as of 2007, is still the only person to serve as first grade coach for the team. Under Bennett the Broncos have won 6 premierships; in 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2006. In 1994 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the sport of Rugby League, particularly as coach of the Brisbane Broncos". Then in 2000 he received the Australian Sports Medal for "significant contribution to the development of sport".

During the 2006 finals series, he became only the second person (after Tim Sheens) to coach 500 premiership games. The six premierships won by Brisbane have made Wayne Bennett the most successful Grand Finals coach in history.

[edit] Future

He was set to continue coaching the Broncos until at least the end of 2009, at which time his contract is up for review. [1].

On the night of 4th February 2008 at a Broncos board meeting, Wayne Bennett handed in his letter of resignation seeking an early release from his contract at the end of the 2008 season.

Bennett's coaching future was confirmed on the evening of March 31, 2008, as he signed a three-year contract to coach the St George Illawarra Dragons from season 2009.

[edit] Representative

[edit] Queensland

In 1986 Bennett began a three-year stint as coach for the Queensland State of Origin team. Queensland were beaten 3-0 in a series whitewash in 1986 but won the series in both 1987 (2-1) and 1988 (3-0). Bennett was appointed as Queensland coach again for the 1995 series but pulled out of the position after players aligned with the breakaway Super League (including the majority of his club team, the Brisbane Broncos) were refused selection. Bennett would again coach Queensland in the 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003 series. He gained widespread attention as Queensland coach after his decision to recall Allan Langer to the Maroons from the English Super League for the deciding third game of the 2001 series. Queensland won the series and the decision was hailed as a "master stroke". Bennett remains involved in coaching for Queensland through the Queensland Academy of Sport and in an off-field role with the Queensland Rugby League

[edit] Australia

National coaching honours first came in 1998 when Bennett was appointed to replace Bob Fulton as Kangaroos coach. Australia was undefeated in two test matches against the Kiwis. Bennett is a passionate advocate of international Rugby League, and was instrumental in the revival of the Tri-Nations series in 2004. In that year he was again appointed Australian coach, and took Australia to reclaim the Trans-Tasman Trophy (lost to New Zealand in 2003) and win the second Rugby League Tri-Nations Series. On 9 December 2005, it was announced that Bennett had resigned as Australia's coach, after the Kangaroos equalled their biggest loss in 98 years, going down 24-0 to New Zealand in the Tri-Nations final, the first time Australia had lost an international series for 32 years.

[edit] New Zealand

After New Zealand lost a test match convincingly in late 2007, the NZRL were looking for ways to turn their team around. After much speculation that Bennett may get the coaching role, Bennett became assistant coach and advisor to coach Stephen Kearney in 2008. This was in preperation of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Coaching Awards

• 1997 Super League Coach of the Year
• 2000 NRL Coach of the Year

On 26 January 2004 Wayne was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division award in the 2004 Australia Day Honours list. Bennett received his award for service to Rugby League football, particularly as a coach, and to the community.

[edit] Personal life

Wayne is married to Trish Bennett and won a Queensland Father of the Year award for helping to raise two of his children with disabilities. He appeared on Australian Story on ABC TV in 2001 to tell the story about his family life. This was one of the most popular programs in the history of that show.

With journalist Steve Crawley he wrote Don't Die with the Music in You which has become one of the best selling books about rugby league in Australia's history (ISBN 0-7333-1107-5, ABC Books Australia). He also writes a weekly column in The Australian.

Ben Ikin is Wayne Bennett's son-in-law. He is married to Bennett's daughter Elizabeth.

Bennett is known for a number of unusual and distinguishable behaviours. These include:

Stern face Bennett is known for almost never smiling and seen as "unemotional". Frequent shots of Bennett whether his team is winning or losing shows him sternly watching the game intensely without any real signs of emotion. In 2004 Ray Warren drew attention to this by stating that "Nathan Hindmarsh will get a hair cut the next time Wayne Bennett smiles". Hindmarsh a Parramatta forward generally has long and untamed hair. Interestingly, since the Broncos won the 2006 premiership Hindmarsh has sported a neat, short head of hair.

Media commitments It is well known Bennett resents media commitments. He famously avoids the press altogether attracting much criticism to which he responds with by claiming he is a coach not a reporter. When he is interviewed Bennett tends to pass on questions with his cliché "I think I'll pass on that thanks" or giving short, cryptic and sometimes controversial answers^{[citation needed]}.

Staying with the Broncos Wayne Bennett has coached the Brisbane Broncos for 21 straight years now since their first season. Under his leadership they have been the most successful side in the past 21 years winning six premierships and never losing a grand final.

It is unusual for a coach to remain at one club for so long and indeed maintain its success. The salary cap system in Australian rugby league makes it difficult, near impossible for a team to re-employ similar tactics for long periods of time and remain successful as players necessary for these strategies may be bought. Bennett however has reinvented the Broncos many times now which is attributed to how one club can maintain success for so long.

However the 2008 season will be his last at the Brisbane Broncos after tendering his resignation on 4 February. On 11 February, it was announced that Bennett would be appointed as an advisor to the New Zealand national rugby league team.^[1]

[edit] Quotations

• If you want to be mentally tough, do as Wayne Bennett says: follow your beliefs and don't give in to yourself. — Steve Waugh

• I believe that Bennett stands somewhere below Jack Gibson, which is somewhere near God. — Roy Masters

• Wayne is a man whose success is built on loyalty, discipline and an innate recognition of individual worth. — Lachlan Murdoch

• Will I miss him? I miss coaching against them all. I will say that it is a shame that Wayne won't be there. With all due respect to Michael Hagan, Wayne Bennett and Queensland go hand in hand... I enjoy coaching against quality coaches, and Wayne Bennett is that. I have really enjoyed coaching against Wayne for the last two years. — Phil Gould

• I don’t know how he does it. He’s like a father to all the players and anyone’s got problems on or off the field he’ll fix them if he can. But he’s not only a father figure I think I class him as one of my best friends. — Allan Langer

• Wayne Bennett believes in himself and his players, and he always will. — Darren Lockyer

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos official website.
• Man for All Seasons - Australian Story Transcript
• Wayne Bennett at celebrityspeakers.com.au
• Brisbane Broncos
• National Rugby League