rhugh89
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
If the Knights win, Wayne Bennett will go down as the best coach of any code: Gorden Tallis
- GORDEN TALLIS
- THE COURIER-MAIL
- SEPTEMBER 25, 2013 12:00AM
IF Newcastle go on to win the premiership then Wayne Bennett should go down as the best coach in Australian history in any sporting code.
He is already recognised as the most successful coach in rugby league history winning seven premierships, but few could argue if he can get the Knights all the way to the title it would be the greatest achievement of his career.
No NRL team has ever won the premiership from outside the top four, so that simply adds more weight to what he is trying to achieve this year.
When he was at Brisbane people would always say we should have won the premiership every year given the players we had at the club.
And when he went to St George Illawarra he took a team that wasn’t far away from a title and led the Dragons to a premiership inside two years.
But to get Newcastle to this stage, one win away from a grand final, is something I never expected. I thought he could get them to the top eight, but I never thought they’d be here at this time of the year.
To be honest I thought Newcastle was the oldest roster in history and they would run out of steam. Yet they’ve peaked, they are firing. If Wayne is going to win a premiership with the Knights, this is his year to do it. He has gone there to win a premiership and it’s clear with the players he has bought that his time is now.
This is the time of the season where the best coaches really stand out. The players can get you so far, but now is the time for a masterstroke from the coaches. Small things can be the difference between winning a premiership and not even reaching a grand final.
Do these other coaches have what it takes at this time of the year?
Will Michael Maguire and Trent Robinson start over-coaching?
Will they analyse too much?
Will they change what they do because the game is bigger?
I can tell you from experience, Wayne gets nervous. It took me nine years to work it out, but you could tell Wayne was nervous by the way he would pace the dressing rooms.
These Knights players wouldn’t know that yet, they’d still be trying to work him out.But what I know about Wayne is that at this time of year he does his best work because he not only backs himself but he trusts his players to watch his back too.
The week leading into the game he doesn’t overload the players, the players will have no pressure on them.He would tell the players their whole week in advance, plan everything exactly the way he is going to do it and tells the players:
"If I do this or I do that, just pull me into check please." "If I over-coach tell me." Maybe these younger coaches won’t have the confidence to do that?
I think Wayne is doing that at Newcastle, he would be talking to his senior players to make sure he doesn’t change.But he would have his eye on them too.
I remember before one big game he organised a dinner and sat me right beside the great Jack Gibson.Another time before a grand final I was in a room sitting with Webby (Shane Webcke) and Thorny (Brad Thorn), just up late chatting and Wayne walked in the room.
It was about 11pm and he just called in to have a chat."What are you three brainstorming about?" he would say. "Wouldn’t be much would it?"He was just always trying to lighten the mood and make sure we weren’t talking about the game or getting too nervous.
That’s the thing about Wayne, he has seen all the mistakes, he knows when something is wrong.He will smell a rat. He will deal with it before anyone else even notices there might be a problem.
Nothing will escape him when it comes to getting this Newcastle team ready to play their best football on Saturday night.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...de-gorden-tallis/story-fni3fh9n-1226726449814
