Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett treated last week’s historic clash with the Broncos like it was any other game. In fact, Jarrod Wallace reckons he might have been “napping in one of the boys’ lockers” when the players returned from their warm-up.
Bennett batted away questions about the highly-anticipated clash between the cross-town rivals in the week leading up to the game.
But what was he like in the sheds before kick-off?
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Pretty much the same nonchalant Bennett that the game knows and loves.
“Wayne shows no emotion,” Wallace told the Fox League Podcast.
“I’m pretty sure when we walked in he was probably still napping in one of the boys’ lockers like he always does when we come back from warming up.
“I’ve never seen a coach so cool, calm and collected like Wayne. I’ve literally come into the sheds (before) and Wayne’s been snoozing.
“He was just normal Wayne.”
The playing group, however, did soak up every moment of the lead-up and game.
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“It was (special), it was such a high emotion week,” Wallace said.
“It was the first game against each other, two Brisbane teams going head-to-head, it was all through the papers and it was what people spoke about all week.
“We kind of tried to stay away from it but there’s nothing better than playing in front of a packed Suncorp Stadium.
“I think I’ve only done it once or twice playing Origin, or we used to have some cracking games there when I was with the Broncos and we’d play the Cowboys.
“To have a sold out stadium, it was unreal, it was loud, it was emotional.
“Everyone loves playing at Suncorp. It doesn’t matter if you’re from New South Wales, Victoria or England — everyone loves playing at Suncorp.”
Despite going down 18-12 in what was the Dolphins’ first loss of the season, Wallace was “very proud of the boys” after several setbacks.
Felise Kaufusi and Jeremy Marshall-King were out suspended, young gun half Isaiya Katoa didn’t play due to an injury, Kodi Nikorima copped a head knock just two minutes after coming onto the field and halfback Sean O’Sullivan suffered a serious pectoral injury during the second half.
It took the Dolphins 56 minutes to get on the board — and it was none other than Wallace who crossed for what was his first try in his new colours.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he recalled.
“We had a quick play the ball, our fill-in hooker Stoney picked up and started running, I just kept running with him and I was just lucky it was so quick that they couldn’t get off the line. I just fell over and got the ball down.
“As a front-rower we don’t get to score often so the emotions take over and you don’t even realise what you’re doing — screaming, yelling and banging your chest.
“To get the first one in the next colours it was unreal, I was probably due for a try — I haven’t scored one in a while. To get one in that Queensland derby game against the Broncos too — I always love playing them — it was very cool.”
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Wallace called last Friday’s clash “one of the best club games I’ve been a part of.”
It’s in his “top four or five” highlights of his career, but the Dolphins inaugural NRL game — the Round 1 upset over the Roosters — is in his “top three.”
“It didn’t settle in for a couple of days to be honest,” Wallace said when asked about beating the Roosters.
“For us it was kind of a surreal feeling. We trained so hard all off-season, we knew we had the belief but I think because everyone wrote us off we shut all the outside noise out.
“Then to see how much it meant to people that have been building this for the last 75 years, that was when it really started to hit home.
“Yes we did it for us, we got the win and it was a historic day but it was so much more to so many other people that were a part of the process since day one.”
The Dolphins went on to beat the Raiders and Knights before suffering their first loss of the season to big brothers, the Broncos.
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Wallace believes their start to the season shouldn’t be a surprise though given Bennett is at the helm.
“There’s probably only a couple of coaches that I could sit here and say could have done the job but Wayne is definitely No.1,” he said.
“Not only has he done it before, he’s coached big teams, built teams from the ground up, he was always going to be able to get players to come (to the Dolphins).
“Coming to a new team as it is, is daunting for a new player, but trying to pull a player out of a successful team to come and play for a brand new one where the unknown is scary sometimes, he was always going to be the only coach that could do it.
“I absolutely loved playing for him in 2015 and 2016 (at the Broncos) so to get the opportunity to be back with him it’s exactly where I want to be in my career right now.”
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Wallace spent six years with the Titans but it took “about three minutes” for Bennett to convince him to sign a two-year deal with the Dolphins.
“Once I saw that Wayne was the coach I had my manager onto it but I reckon my actual phone call was three minutes long. I literally said ‘you send me the contract and I’ll sign it’,” Wallace recalled.
“In 2015 when he first came back to the Broncos, I had only just started my career. He had the opportunity to get rid of me and build a team that he wanted but he didn’t.
“I was coming off a shoulder reconstruction, he helped me build the confidence in myself. He just brought the life back into me for wanting to play football again.
“I’ve always been so thankful because if he wasn’t the coach that took over in 2015 I don’t know where I’d be as a player now.
“I really feel like he’s been one that’s moulded me into the player that I am. I love playing for him, when I’m out on the field I know that I’m not only playing for my teammates but we’re doing it for Wayne because we know that Wayne would take the shirt off his back for us.”
