Bennett's poisoned chalice that tortures rookie coaches

In the NRL there’s plenty of poisoned chalices, but there’s one that stands out more than most.

The task of replacing Wayne Bennett at any club has become a coach’s worst nightmare.

Bennett, with seven premierships to his name, has an aura like no other.

It’s become an impossible task for any coach to replace him, and right now Jason Demetriou is going through a horrible time trying to navigate it.

Jason Demetriou and Anthony Seibold have both struggled when they replaced Wayne Bennett.

Bennett’s man management skills are the stuff of legend, talked up by most players, no matter how long they were coached by him.

“I loved him as a coach, he’s one of those fellas – I don’t know how he does it – he makes you want to play for him and I had that experience young,” Raiders captain Joseph Tapine told Wide World of Sports back in February.

Tapine only had one season with Bennett in 2014 at the Knights.

Rabbitohs captain Cameron Murray had Bennett for three years.

It was that three years of typical Bennett mastery that led to a 2021 grand final.

The Bunnies couldn’t get there in the end and it’s the closest the super coach has gone to becoming the first to win grand finals at three different clubs.

Bennett’s impact on those Souths players was clear to see, and the effects are still showing three years on.

“I’m going to miss him,” Murray said on the Bloke in a Bar podcast after Bennett’s departure.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in that the last three years are done and I’m probably never going to get coached by Wayne again so it’s been really special playing under him.”

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Whether Murray does get coached by Bennett remains to be seen as the heat turns up on Demetriou and the cogs turn in the rugby league circus.

If, as expected, the current Souths coach is relieved of his duties, it’ll make him the fifth club coach to be sacked after a Bennett stint.

Ivan Henjak

It was always going to be one of the toughest tasks in rugby league for Henjak to replace Bennett after his 20-year stint establishing one of the biggest clubs in the competition.

Ivan Henjak barks instructions during his time at the Broncos.

Bennett won six premiership at the club and anything less than a top eight finish was going to have his former assistant coach, Henjak, in trouble.

The rookie coach’s first season was a whirlwind. Brisbane finished sixth and went within one match of the grand final.

The wheels fell off in 2010 though, as the Broncos finished 10th, which was the first time they’d failed to make the finals in almost two decades.

It’s clear Henjak’s approach to man management differed significantly from Bennett and clearly not everyone enjoyed it.

“Ivan was very different to Wayne. He was an emotional guy, volatile even, and good for a blow-up if something was on his mind,” former Bronco Corey Parker wrote in his News Corp column, although he admitted he “had no problem with it”.

Henjak was sacked and replaced by Anthony Griffin.

Steve Price

When Bennett arrived at St George Illawarra in 2009 it came with a lot of turnover.

His changes in the playing roster and support staff paid off when the Dragons won their first premiership as a joint-venture in 2010.

After the 2011 season, Bennett departed and once again an assistant was promoted in Steve Price.

Steve Price had an unsuccessful stint as Dragons coach.

From 2012 to ’14, Price had a winning record of 36 per cent and failed to make a single finals series. In May 2014, Price was sacked.

The Dragons have seemingly never recovered from Bennett’s departure.

Rick Stone

There’s been plenty of controversy in Bennett’s career, and his time at the Knights was right up there.

He came to the club after mining magnate Nathan Tinkler took over, and from 2012 to 2014 it was three years of chaos which resulted in one occasion where Bennett stopped the club owner from addressing his players.

Rick Stone was sacked before the season ended.

In 2012, the Knights didn’t play finals but he took them to a preliminary final the following year.

Bennett’s final year was 2014 after Tinkler gave up ownership.

Stone, his assistant, took over and was left to pick up the pieces of an aging roster and club in turmoil. He didn’t even last the full year before he was sacked.

Anthony Seibold

The most controversial period in Broncos history.

Bennett was on a war path with Broncos management in 2018 and was sacked by voicemail. Seibold replaced him, and it was nothing short of a disaster.

Anthony Seibold had a controversial stint at the Broncos.

The 2018 Dally M coach of the year reportedly tried to remove Bennett buzzwords from around the club’s gym.

Rubbing away the legacy of Bennett from a playing group that adored their former mentor was never going to work.

In Bennett’s final year the Broncos finished fifth. Seibold’s tenure led to an eighth and a wooden spoon, however he was let go for a multi-million dollar payout before the dreaded title was handed down.

Jason Demetriou

At Souths, Bennett was able to get the best out of his star-studded roster.

Cody Walker and Latrell Mitchell had a clear affection for the super coach and since halfway through last year, Demetriou has struggled to have the same impact.

Reports suggest Demetriou is 80 minutes away from his fate at the Bunnies being sealed, and he could become the fifth name to be haunted by the Bennett legacy.

Tim Sheens

Mal Meninga and Glenn Lazarus celebrate the 1989 NRL premiership with Tim Sheens.

The outlier in all of this.

Sheens took over from Bennett at the Raiders in 1988. In his one and only year in charge of Canberra, Bennett guided the club to a grand final but they couldn’t get it done on the day against Manly.

Sheens went on to win three premierships with the Green Machine after Bennett’s departure.