- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
If you were down the local for trivia night and the emcee hit you with “how many times has Wayne Bennett been named Dally M Coach of the Year?”, you’d think the answer would be somewhere north of five.
For someone who has guided teams to the title seven times during his 35 years in the premiership and only missed the finals on a handful of occasions, his Dally M tally is surprisingly very low.
He’s won it just 2.5 times.
In his rookie season sharing it with Don Furner when they took Canberra to the Grand Final, Brisbane’s 2000 premiership year and in 2015 when he returned to the Broncos from Newcastle only to be denied the trophy in extra time by North Queensland star Johnathan Thurston’s famous field goal.
Often the award goes to the coach who drags a team from the bottom of the ladder into the finals against all expectations, such as Andrew Webster with the Warriors last year and Todd Payten at the Cowboys the previous season.
Since the award was first handed out in 1980, nine coaches have received the honour more than once.
Craig Bellamy is three clear at the top with six – four of those seasons were when the Storm did not win the title as well as 2007 when the premiership was stripped for the club’s salary cap rorts and a decade later when they went all the way.
Bellamy is again in with a shot for this year’s award considering he has the Storm again in first spot despite a campaign interrupted by frequent injuries to his key players.
Ivan Cleary, a two-time Dally M recipient, and Trent Robinson, who surprisingly has only won it once in his 2013 debut season, are also in contention with the Panthers and Roosters also hurtling towards the GF.
Multiple Dally M Coach of the Year awards
| Craig Bellamy | 6 |
| Tim Sheens | 3 |
| Wayne Bennett | 3 |
| Roy Masters | 2 |
| Bob Fulton | 2 |
| John Lang | 2 |
| Chris Anderson | 2 |
| Brian Smith | 2 |
| Ivan Cleary | 2 |
When it comes to the “suprise packets” candidates, Bennett has the Dolphins hovering just outside the top four with a team that, although it improved its roster from last year, was not expected to be in the finals mix this late into the season.
Cameron Ciraldo’s efforts in finally restoring pride in the Bulldogs and Shane Flanagan unexpectedly lifting St George Illawarra into the playoff equation mean they are also Coach of the Year candidates.
Bennett’s Dolphins were moments away from causing another boilover on Sunday at Penrith when they went down to the premiers in extra time, leaving them with a scenario of likely needing to win four of their last seven matches to ensure they make the finals in just their second season in the big league.
The Dolphins have been the benefactors of what has turned out to be a favourable draw to this point in the season.
They have only played the top five teams on the ladder three times – losing to Penrith and Melbourne with a win on the road over Cronulla.
But it should also be mentioned that Bennett has his team in playoff contention despite arguably their best player, Tom Gilbert, missing the entire season after knee surgery, fellow Maroons forward Tom Flegler suiting up just four times due to a crook shoulder and Jeremy Marshall-King, Euan Aitken, Herbie Farnworth and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow each missing several matches due to injury.
Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett talks to his players during training. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
And his chief playmaker is a 20-year-old in Isaiya Katoa still finding his feet at this level in his second season.
Destiny is well and truly in their hands with a derby against the Titans this Sunday followed by a “home” game in Perth against the Roosters, a Suncorp Stadium showdown with the Warriors and a crucial clash in Bundaberg with the Bulldogs.
They finish with a trip to Melbourne, another “home” game when they host the Broncos on their Suncorp Stadium turf and a trip to Newcastle.
If the Dolphins can negotiate this tricky stretch to make the finals, Bennett deserves to get what would be a relatively rare Dally M gong for someone with his unprecedented record.
Not that the notoriously taciturn 74-year-old could care any less about personal accolades.
Now that he has signed a three-year deal to return to South Sydney, Bennett will set another record which may never be broken – he will go past a thousand matches as coach during 2027.
You’d think that would be a good time for him to finally bring down the curtain on his coaching career but if Joe Biden can be US president, kinda, into his 80s then who’s to say Bennett won’t do likewise.