NRL 2023: Magic Round, Wayne Bennett 900th game; Ben Hunt move to hooker, Dragons, Zac Lomax dropped by Anthony Griffin, James Hooper, news, updates

WHAT card will Wayne Bennett have up his sleeve when the supercoach celebrates reaching the incredible milestone of 900 games coached in Magic Round at his favourite stomping ground Suncorp Stadium?

There’s no question Wayne’s greatest trick is instilling trust and belief in his players.

Bennett is the undisputed best of the best when it comes to being a players’ coach.

Talk to anyone who’s played for him from Sam Burgess to Wendell Sailor to Beau Scott or Gorden Tallis, Bennett’s genius is the way he relates to his players, earns trust and understands what makes all footballers tick.

Not just champion footballers, all footballers.

Like Craig Bellamy at Melbourne, Wayne can get the best out of the players in the bottom tier of the top 30 the same way he can extract brilliance out of the superstars.

Let’s take Jamie Soward, for example. Bennett helped transform the maligned Dragons playmaker into a premiership-winning five-eighth when plenty of other coaches had consigned him to the too hard basket.

His message? Real simple. Don’t carry your divots.

Play to your strengths and we’ll work on your weaknesses.

Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Tom Gilbert and Connelly Lemuelu are three recent examples at the Dolphins.

Already good players, Wayne’s made them genuine stars.

He hasn’t done it through tactical periodisation or X’s and O’s on an iPad.

He just trains them hard, instils self-belief and treats them like men.

There’s enough famous stories about Wayne to fill five books.

The seven premierships, the dust-ups with other big figures in the game, the allies, the enemies.

From always sitting up the back of the bus (nothing good happens at the front) to playing cards with his players to falling asleep in his office as he’s moved into his 70s to some of the State of Origin series celebrations (we can’t print those), it’s a ripping read.

Of course, it’d be impossible to survive in rugby league for five decades without making plenty of enemies.

Wayne’s got plenty of detractors but even his harshest critic can’t deny a record which will never, ever be beaten.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson, 45, would have to coach for another 25 seasons in the NRL to equal the amount of games Bennett has coached when the Dolphins play the Sharks on Super Saturday in Brisbane.

Robbo has currently coached the Chooks for 266 games and three premierships.

Let’s go over some of the other coaches who’ve made it past 400 games on the roller-coaster ride of life as a head coach.

It’s an all-star line-up. Tim Sheens (677 games, four premierships), Craig Bellamy (531 games, three premierships) , Ricky Stuart (475 games, one premiership), Des Hasler (458 games, two premierships), Warren Ryan (415 games, two premierships), Bob Fulton (405 games, two premierships).

Fittler tight-lipped on five-eight spot | 01:30

Every single one of those coaches has changed the way the game is played - a mark of how good they are.

Bennett’s 62.5 per cent win ratio might not be ahead of Bellyache or Bozo’s but what underlines the Dolphins coach’s genius is his ratio of making the finals.

When it comes to qualifying for September, in 36 seasons at the top level Bennett has made the finals 83 per cent of the time.

That’s phenomenal.

His critics bag his time in Newcastle but the reality is he took them to a preliminary final in 2007 - something the Knights can only dream about these days.

Then you factor in the eight State of Origin series Wayne’s coached for Queensland (the Maroons won five, including with the worst Queensland team in history in 2020).

And the 36 Test matches he’s coached for the Kangaroos and England.

And the role he played with the Kiwis when New Zealand upset Australia in the 2008 World Cup.

And the premierships he won in the Brisbane competition before joining the Canberra Raiders in 1987 alongside Don Furner.

In all likelihood it’s a record that will never be broken.

What it all adds up to is the greatest coach the game has ever seen.

'Playing with fire' Hunt position change | 04:59

DRAGONS PLAYING WITH FIRE OVER HUNT

THE Dragons are playing with fire by shifting the club’s biggest star Ben Hunt into the dummy-half role as the Red V search for the answers to snap a four-match losing streak.

Sure there’s no question Hunt will handle it and there’s an argument given how well he plays for Queensland and Australia in the no.9 jumper it’s actually probably his best position.

But where St George Illawarra are rolling a dangerous dice is by pushing Hunt into playing hooker they risk rival clubs sharpening their pencil to make a raid on the Red V.

The type of character Hunt is he’ll do what’s required for the team but at 33 we’re tipping his preference for the remainder of his NRL career isn’t to play in the middle of the field making 40 tackles plus per game.

Given how tight Hunt and Dragons coach Anthony Griffin are there’s no question the coach will have sounded the Red V captain out about the prospect of moving in to play hooker.

Hunt spent all of a Wednesday training session at dummy-half but the way we’ve heard it the plan is for him to start the game at halfback and then move into the hooking role when Jayden Sullivan is called upon from the bench.

The Dragons will try and argue Hunt has a two-and-a-half year contract until the end of 2025 and there’s no way they’ll be releasing their best player.

But in the modern NRL world most people are awake to contracts rarely being worth the paper they’re written on.

Kenty TEES OFF on Knights Bali holiday | 02:19

Cashed-up clubs like the Bulldogs, the Canberra Raiders and the Dolphins could all make a play for Hunt to play halfback and comfortably offer him well over $1 million per season.

The champion Red V playmaker has already gone on the record this season stipulating how he’ll have to consider his options if Griffin is no longer the Dragons head coach.

Those odds are shortening by the day as the Dragons force Griffin to endure a death by a thousand cuts final 12 months at the St George Illawarra helm.

You’ve only got to look at the way he’s taken an axe to the Dragons team list for Sunday’s showdown against Wests Tigers to see how poorly the club has handled the situation.

The coach is all over the shop, much like club management and the board who is still yet to make key decisions around who’s in charge for next season.

For all Griffin’s faults, it’s cruel the way the Dragons have rolled him out and allowed speculation about his future to turn into an out-of-control bonfire.

The Hunt to hooker move is the latest desperation play from a club fast rivalling the Wests Tigers as the NRL’s biggest basket case.

HOOKS BAFFLING HANDLING OF LOMAX CALL

DRAGONS centre Zac Lomax was so irate about being axed from the NRL for Magic Round he returned to coach Anthony Griffin’s office to ask why.

When Griffin initially broke the news to Lomax at the club’s Wollongong headquarters on Tuesday, the coach offered no reasoning but told the centre to take a couple of days off and return to training on Friday when he’d explain it.

Lomax initially went and sat in the WIN Stadium grandstand to process what had just unfolded before returning to Griffin’s office to again pose the question about why he’d been cut.

Griffin gave no answers and simply told Lomax to go and cool down and he’ll get an explanation on Friday.

Confused? Don’t worry, so are we.

This might have been acceptable in the 1970s and 80s but in the modern world of smart cars, Instagram likes and Chat GPT technology, Griffin has dropped the ball big time here.

Griffin has long worn criticism for poor communication dating back to his days at Penrith Panthers and put simply Lomax deserved an explanation.

Is it that hard?

Lomax is signed at the Dragons until the end of 2026 having already exercised an option in his favour for the final year of the deal.

On about $550,000 this year, the 23-year-old centre will be on around the $700,000 mark by the final year of the contract.

Surely it’s the coach’s job to get the best out of the top talent on his roster and given Lomax’s salary we’re classifying him as top talent.

Lomax, 23, would be a walk-up start in most top 17s at any NRL club.

While Ben Hunt trained at hooker and Jayden Sullivan ran at halfback in Wollongong on Wednesday, Lomax was nowhere to be seen at St George Illawarra headquarters.

This is a bad scene and says so much about where St George Illawarra are at as a club at the moment.

Dragons unfazed by Lomax being dropped | 01:05

Would anything remotely like this have happened under Wayne Bennett’s watch when he steered the club to its last premiership in 2010.

No chance.

Imagine if Bennett had Zac Lomax at the Dolphins now. He’s turned Jamayne Isaako into one of the strike wingers in the NRL.

After the Dragons face the Wests Tigers in Magic Round the club is then headed to the Gold Coast for a few days before preparing to take on the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville in round 11.

The strong mail is Jason Ryles is next to no chance of accepting the head coaching position for 2024, Shane Flanagan’s representative has been told he’s highly unlikely which basically leaves Ben Hornby in pole position.

Unfortunately for one of the biggest brands in the NRL - on the back of the events of this week - we’re tipping this Red V bad scene is about to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

The Dragons need to get five key areas of the club right.

Head coach, general manager of football, head of recruitment, CEO and whoever else is going to work in the football department around the head coach.

All the good clubs have these areas sorted.

The Roosters, South Sydney, Melbourne, Penrith, Brisbane Cronulla and the Dolphins are prime examples.

St George Illawarra and their opponents on Sunday the Wests Tigers are still very much a work in progress.