I've always been a firm believer that in many sports that coaching is vastly overrated- players matter. Rugby league is one of those sports (exhibit A- Michael Hagan winning a comp- but with Johns as his halfback), cricket obviously, soccer, definitely. In some sports like American football coaching is crucial, but you still need a QB.
This was running through my mind after seeing St George put Brisbane to the sword convincingly last night. Wayne Bennett has always been lauded as some sort of coaching guru, while skeptics, including myself, have always maintained coaching would be easy when you have the whole of Queensland to pick from. When he signed on to be the saviour at the chronically underachieving Dragons I thought this was an hilarious convergence between the always hysterical Dragons fans like PAWD who are forever jumping on and off the bandwagon at ankle breaking speed and the myth of Bennett. Just wait until things go wrong and the media turns on him, he'll slink back north by May, I told PAWD.
Well, it seems that the grumpy old bastard CAN coach after all. The defensive intensity they've shown with pretty much the same, or less heralded guys, has been a thousand percent better than during Brown's tenure. Upon further reflection, maybe coaching matters at the defensive end more than I thought. Defence is about attitude and committment, attack is about talent. Clearly, Bennett has gotten committment from his guys that Brown never could. Why? Who knows, but professional athletes rarely go for the big motivational speech, or they won't every week. Generally, they don't like their faces being slapped on the sideline either. The thing that will best make a team commit for a coach is when the players think the coach isn't full of shit and knows what he's talking about, and Bennett obviously does.
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As a one eyes Saints fan I can give you a few reasons for the turnaround at the start of season 09.
ReplyDelete1. Obviously as you have stated, the Dragons now have a proven coach who gets the most out of players. Since I have followed the red and whites they have never had one of these guys kicking their ass off the field. People like Nathan Brown, Andrew Farrar and co seem more like mates than mentors. It has showed over the years with the underachievments of the Dragons.
2. The Dragons finally had a much needed cleanout. For years we have had talented, but heartless players leading the club (eg Barrett, Ryles, Gaz etc) who wouldn't know what "Ticker" was if you put an alarm clock in front of them. Bennett recruited well signing hardened criminals like Weymon, J Smith and Costigan to put more grunt into the soft Dragons underbelly. Mix that with the raw talent of Boyd, Morris and Soward and you have the makings of a good team.
I am not getting carried away with this as the season is only 4 weeks old, but the overall attitude improvement is very encouraging for Saints fans. Hopefully we can built and have a shot at that ellusive premiership in years to come.
Has there even been a hint of a smile on the grub's face in recent weeks?? I swear I saw him smile on Friday night. What next, Thug smiling at Lappo Oval on a Saturday morning??!
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