How Wayne Bennett betrayed Roosters

[Grimmace]

How Wayne Bennett betrayed Roosters
Phil Gould
September 17, 2006

Left hand on the Bible, right hand raised. Here's the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Wayne Bennett sat down with chairman Nick Politis about six weeks ago and agreed to coach the Sydney Roosters.

Everything was fine until Thursday evening, when Bennett informed the club he was no longer coming. His explanation for this change of heart appears inadequate given the enthusiasm he'd shown for our club and the degree of work already undertaken to prepare for his arrival.

To say this has been a massive disappointment is an understatement.

Only a few people were privy to this information but the level of excitement among all of us, that we had secured the services of this great coach, was enormous. We all looked forward to the future with great anticipation.

At Bennett's request, this had been kept a secret for all that time, but as is always the case in rugby league, secrets inexplicably find their way into the public arena.

In the end, though, it was only speculation and no real justification for the whole deal to go up in smoke.

A number of times over the past 12 months, Politis phoned me to discuss the performances of the Roosters team. We're great mates and both love the club.

By mid-season this year he was concerned because the poor on-field performances were starting to affect the off-field business of the club. Indicators such as attendances, merchandise sales and reactions from fans concerned him greatly. He also noticed that player recruitment and retention was becoming more difficult.

Never at any time was it suggested by either of us that coach Ricky Stuart would not see out his contract until the end of the 2007 season. Most discussion revolved around ways to help him get over the hump.

By the latter part of the season, however, Politis was concerned things did not look like improving. He always asked, "Why will things be any different next season?"

He interviewed many people, including the coaching staff, and was not satisfied with the level of confidence behind the responses.

He was worried that if performances did not improve in the early part of next season, and with Stuart coming off contract at the end of next year, the speculation about the coach's future would be very damaging to the club. Especially in the 100th-year celebrations, this should be avoided.

It was about two months ago that Politis first suggested the club may need a change of coach.

My attitude was that he couldn't sack the coach because there was no better replacement available.
I held the opinion our best option was to help Stuart through this and I even offered to sit down with the coach and talk to him about what could be done.

Politis finally asked, "If I sack him, what sort of coach should we get?"

I said, "Ring Wayne Bennett."

I saw Bennett as the perfect coach to lead the Roosters out of this situation for a whole host of reasons.

I concluded by saying that if the club couldn't lure Bennett, Stuart should remain and I repeated my offer of assistance if Politis thought that would help.

That was our last conversation about the matter.

Two weeks later, a rival Sunday paper reported that Stuart was about to be sacked and Brad Fittler and myself would be taking over as coaches. I went on radio the next day declaring this was a load of rubbish. I then put in a call to Stuart asking him to meet with me to discuss the situation, thinking at this time his job was still safe.

An hour later, I got a call from Politis telling me he'd sacked Stuart two weeks previously.

I asked if he had a replacement coach and he said he wouldn't sack Stuart unless he had something in place. That's the way Politis works.

I didn't find out for another week the replacement was Bennett. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited that he'd agreed to coach our club.

I learnt only during the week that after agreeing to coach the Roosters, it was Bennett who suggested to Politis that he should inform Stuart as soon as possible so he would have maximum time to find another job.

It was this suggestion from Bennett that prompted Politis to tell Stuart when he did. He suggested Stuart should resign and the announcement would be made at the end of the season.

Politis promised Stuart all his contract money for next year and it would be reported as Stuart needing a break from the game after five very tough seasons.

It's never an easy decision to part company with a coach, especially one who has worked as hard as Stuart. But the prospect of Bennett coming to the club certainly made the decision much easier.

When Bennett informed Politis he wasn't coming it hit like a sledgehammer. I've known Politis a long time and I've never heard him so upset. For a moment I feared this may cause him to walk away from the club. At his stage in life and with everything he's achieved, I'm sure he could find plenty of things to do with his time without the pressure of running a football club.

If Politis ever leaves the Roosters, the club will be history.

But he has great passion and resilience. He shrugged off the disappointment in typical Politis style and we talked on the phone until 1am about getting a new coach.

At one point I even suggested reappointing Stuart but Politis felt we should press forward and find a new direction in coaching.

In the end, there was only one choice. We agreed the best credentialled coach available was Chris Anderson and that in the best interests of the club we should be appointing the best coach. I support this decision 100 per cent. Nick moved swiftly and within 18 hours had his man.

Fittler has always held a high regard for Anderson's style and he's genuinely excited at the prospect of working with him over the next two years. He'll learn a lot working with Anderson and I'm sure the club is heading into a new era of success.

It's been a difficult year for the club but it can only make it stronger.

Bennett has missed a great opportunity to be involved with a super group of people. I respect his right to make this decision but I don't understand it.

I ask all Roosters fans to throw their support behind the new team of Politis, Anderson and Fittler. They're all winners and I have great confidence the Roosters will be winners again, really soon.
Source:smh

[Queenslander]

Phil Gould: delivering bs since Jesus was a boy. :dead:

[zacaroo]

i hate phil gould and the roosters!!

[DeeGan]

Wayne Bennett could have expected more of the above carry on from Gould who loves to put himself in the 'holier than thou' position and reiterate to all that will listen his friendship with his idol, Nick Politis. More soap boxing on a dead and buried topic.

Expect more this morning on one of either the Footy Show or Sunday Roast.

[Poida]

pfft i expect this sort of crap from gould.

[Queenslander]

On the Sunday Roast Phil Gould talk about media bias clouding the story! What an idiot, he is the king of media bias :curse:

If Phil's story is true, and I stress this is Phil's opinion of what happened; then the Roosters organisation haven't got much going on upstairs. To make all these changes based on a verbal agreement with Wayne is just crazy. I thought all league clubs would be wary of verbal agreements now after the Steve Turner issue.

In conclusion I believe that the Roosters or just Phil Gould to be more correct are blaming Wayne Bennett and using Wayne as a scape goat for all of the in-house problems that the club is having.

[Poida]

On the Sunday Roast Phil Gould talk about media bias clouding the story! What an idiot, he is the king of media bias :curse:


If Phil's story is true, and I stress this is Phil's opinion of what happened; then the Roosters organisation haven't got much going on upstairs. To make all these changes based on a verbal agreement with Wayne is just crazy. I thought all league clubs would be wary of verbal agreements now after the Steve Turner issue.

In conclusion I believe that the Roosters or just Phil Gould to be more correct are blaming Wayne Bennett and using Wayne as a scape goat for all of the in-house problems that the club is having.

rofl at him saying he wont comment about wanye bennett.
he did already

[Steve Dangerous]

regardless of what you think of gould or the roosters, the following things seem true:

-bennett agreed to coach the roosters
-ricky got sacked
-bennett informed them he no longer would coach the roosters

which raises a number of points:

-if the roosters were so prepped up following bennett's agreeing, than it must have been a very firm commitment. which leads us to wonder how his broncos contract was going to be overlooked, why he didn't say anything to his own CEO or club, and why he rubuked at the 11th hour.


or you could say gould made the whole thing up, but i think that's more baseless slurs than objective info.

[[BroncosGirl]]

I think the other side of the story needs to be told first.

Its hard to think WB would give an outright answer?
He might have considered his time was up 5/6 with the Broncos form?
But still hard to say it was set in concrete.

Its believable though, he might have said yes, and wanted ti kept secret so it didnt disrupt Brisbane, and then he realised his heart and work was still with Brissy!

Who knows.

[Steve Dangerous]

well it explains why he never squashed the rumour. he's been very avoidant for a long time... if it was clearly untrue then i don't see why he wouldn't come out and say it was BS. dragging out the speculation had no benefits if it was untrue, but if it was true then it was clearly in his best interests to not announce anything until the broncos season was done.

[Chaos]

A lot of speculation going around.

Broncos and/or Wayne Bennett need to approach the media and give their version.

It will be a hard week for the Bronco boys to concentrate on this weeks game.

[Hoppy2007Dragons]

:roll:

[Capital_Shark]

Wow. Anyone surprised that despite all the fingers being pointed at him, Gus managed to come out smelling like roses...

And the bit about them agreeing to have it reported as Ricky needing a break after a tough 5 years .. It wasn't reported like that at all.

Perhaps Wayne Bennett just loves it when sh!t hits the fan down Bondi way like the rest of us..

[MUZ]

I agree with BroncosGirl,it's all hearsay until we hear Wayne Bennetts side of the story. If you listened to Phil Goulds commentary last night he talked about how good Joey Johns was for 15 minutes, was silent for the next 30 minutes when the Broncos got on top and then talked about how good the Dragons must be if they beat the Broncos 20 - 4 last week! He just doesn't seem to like the Broncos or Qld.Massive bias.
If Wayne Bennett did knock back the job at the Roosters after agreeing to it, he has dodged a bullet, according to Phil Goulds article in the paper today he suggested Wayne should be coach , and if the Roosters are listening to someone who supposedly isn't even on their staff then they have HUGE problems.
Phil is on the Dragons bandwagon(not hearsay-he admits it) Is he trying to unsettle the Broncos?
P.S. I'm biased too,GO BRONCOS!

[Steve Dangerous]

wayne bennett isn't going to give "his side of the story" i don't think. he's way too tight-lipped, i predict he just stays shut until people get over the whole thing.