Expansion expert: Supercoach Bennett puts hand up to lead NRL’s new Queensland club

Wayne Bennett has put his hand up to lead the NRL’s seventeenth team ⁠— a fresh-faced Queensland project ⁠— in their junior years, claiming “the talent is there,” it’s just a matter of putting the pieces together in the team’s fledgling roster.

The undisputed rugby league supercoach, Wayne Bennett, has put his name alongside rugby league’s next top-flight project, one of three Queensland hopefuls.

One of three heavyweight northern footy organisations will join the NRL in the coming years, Peter V’Landys has promised, as the game expands into its Queensland heartland in 2023. These three club hopefuls include:

• Brisbane Jets
• Redcliffe Dolphins (the frontrunners)
• Brisbane Firehawks

And, in a massive boost for Queensland’s expansion, Bennett told NRL media he’s eager to lead the new club as they look to leave their mark on the NRL early.

The 71-year-old would, of course, be a monster get for any fledgling footy outfit. The coaching mastermind began one of the most illustrious careers the game has seen all the way back in 1976, and has spent 44 of those 45 years helming five teams to lofty heights.

Bennet has enjoyed tenures in Canberra, Sydney (with St George Illawarra and the Rabbitohs), Newcastle, and Brisbane, the latter of which swallowed up 24 years of his career in two stints between 1988 and 2018.

He’s won seven national league titles, and the Bunnies boss has 877 top-flight games under his coaching belt. That’s on top of 27 matches in State of Origin too.

It’s easy to say Bennet is one of rugby league’s greatest coaches.

The NRL supercoach, in true Bennet style, doesn’t just want to start the club either; according to the 71-year-old, who is currently leading the Rabbitohs in a threeway premiership battle with the Storm and Panthers, the talent is there to challenge right off the bat. It’s just a matter of putting the pieces together.

“I’m honestly confident enough that if I got the opportunity, I could put a successful team together pretty quickly with a bit of help from other people,” he said.

“The NRL-ready players are out there, yes.

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The problem is that a lot of coaches aren’t getting the best out of what they have got. I don’t fear any of that at all. I know who’s under-performing and I know that guys aren’t getting opportunities.

There are two or three clubs ⁠— without actually naming them ⁠— who I see do a great job every year with players that other clubs let go and all of a sudden, these guys resurface and play great football. 

“I can see my expansion team doing that.”

Bennett also shook his head when asked about other club’s that fear it is “too early” for the NRL to be adding a seventeenth team to the competition equation. Suggestions have been boiling in the media recently that the NRL has provided “very little information” about the extra team, mostly from other clubs.

“If we listen to other clubs, we would never expand,” he said.

“We certainly wouldn’t have got State of Origin, we probably wouldn’t have Test football. There’s always a vested interest party out there and that’s the other clubs.

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“If you look at Brisbane and South-East Queensland, that is going to be a huge growth area. That is what [ARLC chairman] Peter V’landys has been on about. I think part of most of the bids is that they will expand the game and they will create new clubs and new opportunities for young men and women to play.

“It would be exciting and it would create a hell of a lot of interest as it did in the past. Melbourne has been a great success and the Broncos as an expansion club were a great success, even if they are having a tough time now.

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“From a personal point of view, from a game point of view that I’ve been involved in all my life,” the Bunnies boss added, “I think it’s the next thing for us to do.”

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