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Message: [QUOTE="GCBRONCO, post: 2921626, member: 1808"] To be fair to Bennett he inherited much that initial 1988 side he didn't have much say over who was recruited that was much left to the board members at the time they were recruiting players while trying to sign Bennett, to say Bennett(who wasn't even their first initial pick for the job, that was Jack Gibson who declined but told them Bennett was the man for the job) picking the eyes out of the Queensland state of origin squad is misleading and somewhat insulting he didn't play that part, the club did that, they also took gambles on Chris Johns and Terry Matterson who weren't exactly superstars, Bennett certainly helped develop those two after they joined the club. Bennett only really got say over recruitment afterwards and Glenn Lazarus(1992), Peter Jackson (1989) and Kevin Walters (1990) he had previously helped developed and coached. Michael Hancock, Andrew Gee, Alan Cann, Mark Hohn, Kerrod Walters, Paul Hauff, Steve Renouf, Willie Carne, Juilian O'Neill, John Plath(and I could dig even further but I won't) are just some of the talent that would go on to be critically important in the coming seasons and he certainly developed those players. It should also be noted Bennett probably made the toughest decision any coach has had to make in the best interests of the club, sack Wally Lewis as captain and make way for Kevin Walters, to do that in the State of Queensland when he was and still is of godlike status was unthinkable. You had both the media and daily phone polls on if he should be sacked, Wally reinstated as captain, Kevin Walters and Gene Miles to be sacked etc People think the press surrounding Lodge has been enormous that was nothing compared to the circus going around back then. The fact the board didn't just fold under the daily barrage and sack Bennett was an amazing display of trust. He repaid them and then some. Bennett is far from perfect, in fact his time at the Knights was easily his worst in the NSWRL-NRL era of his coaching career and he probably lost a bit of shine there on his career. However Bennett has played his part in getting the club heading in the right direction after the Henjak/Griffin era and deserves some dues for that. That doesn't mean his not open to criticism during this time either, if it's justified I don't have a problem, some of it I feel it is, in some ways I feel he is more reluctant to make the tough calls then he previously would, particularly his attachment to Boyd. That being said I have more trust in him then the majority of coaches in the game at present, his time will come to an end though, his job is to prepare us for the long term and that is what he is doing. [/QUOTE]

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