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DIEHARD
09-12-05, 08:50 PM
Wayne Bennett has quit as coach of the Kangaroos.

The Australian Rugby League (ARL) confirmed Bennett quit as the national team coach after the loss to New Zealand in last month's Tri-Nations final in Leeds, England, the ABC reported.

Source: http://www.NEWS.com.au

DIEHARD
09-12-05, 08:52 PM
Very disappointed to see him step down. At least he cared about the international game and the station of the Kangaroos.

Who else would step up? A lot of other first grade coaches shoot down the international game.

Phil Gould's name has to get a run. Now that would be very interesting! :dizzy:

A call for suggestions from the floor? Who will be the next roo coach?

Dragons
09-12-05, 09:12 PM
Gould could get a run only because he not coaching a side, but I would really like to see Mal Marniga have a go as I met the man and he one hell of a bloke.

Super Cronk
09-12-05, 10:02 PM
WHAT???? I didnt think he would step down. Huge surprise. Ah well he has been a great coach for australia, disagree with a few selections over the years but over-all a good COACH. I think bellamy being the assistant he would be in for a running, along with gould and a few others.

DeeGan
09-12-05, 10:34 PM
IMO good news - Bennett is a great, great coach and his efforts appreciated in revitalising interest in the international game though it was time to fall on his sword and bring in some fresh blood. I ain't covering it all again - thanks for the memories Wayne.

DeeGan

DIEHARD
09-12-05, 11:15 PM
I really didn't see this coming.

I knew the ARL would support him and re-invite him to the position.

But the ball was in his court and he pulled the trigger.

You have to give him massive credit for resurrecting the international game and being father of the Tri Nations. Once we thrashed the Lions in Sydney in 2002 the ARL were ready to put the international game on the back burner.

After a week of scaremongering by the media that the international game is dead and people within the games running around like chickens with their heads cut off, Bennett publishes an upbeat and positive article about international rugby league which was pretty much a "OK this is what we are gonna do..."

Thanks Wayne for what you have done for the international game.

Steelers
09-12-05, 11:46 PM
I am VERY surprised! In the end, the right decision IMO. Bennett is a great coach, but a change is needed. I would like to see Gould put his hand up for it.

Dakink
10-12-05, 08:22 AM
Respect to Bennett for his attitude in making this decision. He obvioulsy felt he copuldnt give his all and what the position demanded. I believe the next coach should be a non-club coach. Their should be a big incentive laid down by the ARL for the coaching position. Make the Aus coach a position of great value and respect. The Aus coach should be the top of the tree. Make the pos full time and expand the role to cover aiding and helping develop the international game when not on direct Aus duties.

Queenslander
10-12-05, 10:10 AM
Well im surprised i thought he would be here until the World Cup and finish all coaching in 2008. This is a huge shock as for Mal Meninga to take over i support that idea but not many people will e.g. New South Wales people

Dakink
10-12-05, 10:19 AM
I dont mind Mal taking over - though Iwould rather wait and see how he goes at QLD. His dossier isnt exactly brimming as a coach, especially for the Aus job.

DIEHARD
10-12-05, 11:43 AM
Bennett quits post

As Australia coach, Wayne Bennett felt damned if he did and damned if he didn't. So he resigned. Roy Masters reports.


AT 6pm yesterday, Wayne Bennett made his final three phone calls as coach of the Kangaroos - to ARL chairman Colin Love, chief executive Geoff Carr and Queensland boss Ross Livermore.

"I wish to advise the ARL that I will not be a candidate to coach the Australian team in 2006, or the near future," he read from words he had carefully penned on a small piece of paper. "I want to thank you for your support over the last few years."

Bennett will remain as coach of the Broncos but his representative career is over. The five-time premiership-winning coach, victor of the 2004 Tri-Nations series and leader of successful Queensland State of Origin teams is consumed by self-loathing.

He hates himself for his rock star-style run to his car at Brisbane Airport; he is intensely troubled by the question of his identity; he cannot reconfigure the borders between man and myth, public and private ?

"I regret taking the back-door way out of the airport," he said, his voice thick, as if something had lodged in his throat. "If I had my time over again, I wouldn't do it. I can't bring it back. It's done and I have to live with it."

His decision not to talk to the media on arrival in Brisbane was made in the air. Back at the terminal in Hong Kong, he stole a sideways glance at a copy of the Herald that assistant coach Craig Bellamy was reading.

"It was a photo of [Anthony] Minichiello with his shirt off and Willie Mason," he said of a scene at The Church in London, a barn-like bar favoured by backpackers.

Feelings of betrayal cascaded over him. He had expressly forbidden the Kangaroos to visit the party venue after their 24-0 loss to New Zealand in the Tri-Nations final in Leeds. Scenes of the players celebrating the first loss by an Australian team since 1978 didn't sit comfortably with him and he believed the players had agreed penance was to be paid.

"We didn't go to The Church," he stuttered to Bellamy. "What's this? How did this happen?" Then the answer cut through his fury and everything became clear. It was last year's photo.

"They were waiting for us to go to The Church and stuff up," he said of what he perceives to be a jackalled media. "When we didn't, they got a photo from last year. How do you win here? They should have applauded me for checking them into bed because I didn't want them out all night."

Bennett claims a hypocritical media tarred the tour. "I'm shattered by it," he said. "You are damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Although aware the job of Kangaroos coach comes with built-in criticism, he cannot reconcile the attacks on predecessor Chris Anderson for leading the team on a beer-fuelled trip through Europe, famously dubbed a Contiki tour by Mason, with his own reputation as an authoritarian figure who never lets players relax.

Bennett's teetotalitarianism is based on genetic dynamite: he lived a childhood played out in the haunting Toni Childs song I've got to go now - "? the time bomb's ticking". He lovingly sat beside his father on his long bus trips to play football but the alcoholic rages were something else.

"My experience is if you get drunk, you're dealing with a wholly different person," he said. "The game has never been in more turmoil and it's mostly drink related. I had some rules in England for the drink, and when I got home I found I'd been criticised for that. We had fun. We had some great nights but someone said I ruined their parties. If I'd gone the other way and imposed no controls, it would have been a disaster. I would have been crucified."

As the Qantas flight neared Brisbane, Bennett intended to walk through the media. His self-justification was twofold: he had spent half an hour answering questions from 50 to 75 journalists after the loss in Leeds, and he had been snubbed by the media at Sydney Airport when he returned victorious after the 2004 tour.

"I'm not comfortable with cameras stuck in my face and saying, 'No comment' - but that's what I was going to do," he said.

As he waited for his luggage, a Qantas employee approached, saying: "There's a lot of journalists out there. I can get you through the back door." Bennett said: "That sounds like a good idea, mate."

But while the Qantas man left to confirm the escape route, Bennett had second thoughts. "'This isn't your go, Wayne', I told myself. 'You don't go through the back door'. The Qantas bloke had gone a long while and just when I was about to pick up my gear and walk through, he reappeared with a Customs officer. I thought, 'I can't let him down if he's gone to all this trouble', so I followed him out the side door to the car park. I don't regret not talking; I do regret going through the back door."

Of course, he was also keen to see wife Trish and their three children. Shortly after the Brisbane bolt, he was criticised for failing to attend a coaches' meeting in Sydney.

"I've never attended those conferences because they are time-wasters," he said. "Plus I'd been away seven weeks and two of my kids require full-time adult care. I don't want my wife to carry the burden again. She's given more than I could ever give."

But his great burden is the responsibility of being a public figure. He is aware he has the scowl of a prison guard way too long on the job.

"I am my own worst enemy," he said. "I'm not in the mould of a public spokesman. Thirty-one years ago, when the under-20 police cadets lost their coach and asked me to replace him, I accepted because I thought I could help them become better footballers and better guys. I was 24. It's still the reason I coach. Players have always been my great love."

He remains indebted to the 2005 Kangaroos squad, saying: "The staff were magnificent and the players make a lot of sacrifices for Australia." But he can no longer endure the internal conflict of his high-profile responsibilities, and despite being the author of two books, he said: "I don't see myself as important, someone who people listen to and want to know what I've got to say. I battle with it all the time. It builds up and then a journo misreports me and I get the ****s and it's time to close down again."

Bennett admits defeat intensifies his introspection. "I'm a cave guy," he said, explaining why he changes from stolid hero to sulky failure. "When tough times come, I need to get away. I have to go through that process to handle the hurt and disappointment. It's the reason I'm not good with the media. I can't play the game. I don't know what the game is. I can't work it out. I've got to be me."

Last night Love paid tribute to Bennett. "In Wayne's short tenure as Kangaroos coach he demonstrated that he was a mentor in every sense of the word, caring for the players as skilled performers but also citizens with responsibilities," Love said. "We respect his decision. Life goes on."

Bellamy is a logical alternate and is likely to have support of NSW and Qld board members.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Queenslander
10-12-05, 03:14 PM
Bennett is currently talking on ABC radio about all the issues. And when asked why he quit Bennett stated that he cannot currently explain the reasons for his resignation.