Not long after South Sydney conceded 50 points twice within three weeks, Wayne Bennett lightened the mood at training – ripping off his shirt and busting a move beneath the main grandstand at Redfern.
“Everyone was down [about the results], but he gets in the gym with his shirt off and starts dancing,” coach Jason Demetriou, Bennett’s successor and former assistant at Souths, tells the Herald. “Everyone was like, ‘What?’ Then he says, ‘Let’s go, we’re going to train’, and off we went.
“Wayne had an ability to pull out humour when it was needed.
“He’d get on the bus with a cowboy hat and sunglasses and act like one of the boys. Or he’d dance in the change room.
“The last couple of years he was here, the last year in particular when the cameras were in the sheds, we got to see more of what Wayne is really like. That’s why his teams play with a smile on their face and enjoy what they do.”
Bennett and his NRL newcomers the Dolphins face Demetriou and Souths for the first time on Thursday night.
Jason Demetriou and Wayne Bennett go head to head for the first time on Thursday night.Credit: Getty
The 73-year-old seven-time premiership winner is no stranger to facing his former clubs after stints with the Broncos – twice – St George Illawarra and Newcastle. Demetriou, who spent five years working under Bennett at the Broncos and Souths, has been the only coach to buck the “Bennett curse” by enjoying sustained success once the old master had exited the building.
Bennett said the reason Demetriou had thrived where others had not was simple.
“The other places never had a plan; they all thought they knew better,” Bennett said.
“Jason should have been coaching at the Broncos. That’s where he should have been.
The pair spent three years together at RedfernCredit: Getty
“Coaching is my business; I know who can coach and who can’t. You have guys running around who have no idea what makes [good] coaches, making the decision about who the next coach will be.
“I remember when I got Jason to come with me to Souths, [former Souths chief] Shane Richardson said, ‘Is he the right guy to be the next coach?’, and I said, ‘Yeah he is, and I wouldn’t be bringing him if he wasn’t’.
“Jason knows his job. A lot of coaches know their job, but Jason was also confident in himself. He’s got the job because he earned it, and he can get the job done there. I know that, he knows that and his players know that.”
Demetriou, 47, had many pieces of advice from Bennett, one of the last being: “Make sure everyone in the organisation knows you’re the boss”.
Like Bennett, Demetriou never paid much attention to the worrying record of those who had replaced the master coach.
“There’s still a long way to go, but the ‘curse’, as a coach I can’t walk through the doors and worry about following Wayne Bennett, I just can’t,” he said.
“I can’t worry about being compared to him or worry about the players thinking, am I him? I am who I am. The best part about this transition is the players knew who I was. He was really good with that transition.”
Bennett’s first job as a head coach in the NSWRL was at Canberra in 1987. Demetriou said the longevity reflected someone capable of change who made it “not about you but the boys you’re coaching”.
“On Thursday night, we know the Dolphins will be a Wayne Bennett-coached team, they’ll compete really hard in the effort areas, and they won’t beat themselves,” Demetriou said.
“They’ll run hard, kick pressure, all the little things that make Wayne Bennett teams strong. And we need to match that. We know full well this is a game Wayne would love to get the two points.”
