Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

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josie andrews
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Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by josie andrews »

Sky Sports rugby league expert Brian Carney questions whether Great Britain head coach Wayne Bennett is the Gerald Ratner of the sport ahead of the Lions’ second Test against New Zealand on Saturday…

The Great Britain tour Down Under has descended into a farce.

I made the point previously how it was important to incorporate all of the Home Nations under the Great Britain brand - and let's remember, it is a brand.

But as far as branding exercises go, this has been a complete and utter shambles.

To have Wayne Bennett appearing to suggest Welsh star Regan Grace not being part of the England set-up has worked against him in terms of making this tour shows how far the head coach is from grasping what the Great Britain & Ireland Lions team should be about, and how rudderless the concept is.


We've had 12 years to prepare for the Lions returning to the international stage and we have a coach who is calling it a training exercise for England's World Cup prospects in 2021.

We'll wait to see if Blake Austin plays on the wing against New Zealand on Saturday, but the selections from the start have been perplexing. When we found out the reason was to prepare England's halves for the next World Cup, they needed to turn the plane around and come home.
To have Wayne Bennett appearing to suggest Welsh star Regan Grace not being part of the England set-up has worked against him in terms of making this tour shows how far the head coach is from grasping what the Great Britain & Ireland Lions team should be about."

Brian Carney
Just exactly who is in charge? Ultimately, it must fall at the feet of RFL chief executive Ralph Rimmer and he needs to take a long, hard look at what he is presiding over.

And that's before we take into consideration it is 2019 and the Great Britain & Ireland side don't even have their own social media accounts! How on earth can we get something so wrong?

I'm serious when I say this: The damage done to the Lions brand by the words and actions of Bennett and his selectors - and the lack of oversight from Rimmer - could prove fatal to a jersey I, for one, cherish pulling on as a career highlight.

Somebody from the RFL needs to explain what this "Lions tour" is all about, because I started thinking it was the selection of the best available players from four countries and it's now been revealed as preparatory work for England's crack at the 2021 World Cup.

If that is the case then scrap the Lions and call it England, Ralph.

The irony of all of this is that Ralph was team manager of the Ireland side at the 2000 World Cup and I know from being a member of the squad how seriously he took it - and how seriously he took the concept of Ireland having its own identity.

That identity is meant to carry through to the Lions, which makes what he is in charge of now all the more perplexing.

It makes me ask the question: Is Wayne Bennett the Gerald Ratner of rugby league? Ratner, you may recall, was the man who nearly caused his jewellery business to collapse when he - albeit jokingly - talked down the quality of its products.

The Lions is a brand which you can package up nicely and ask people to buy into. Somebody needs to drill that into the head of Bennett - and if he doesn't agree with it, he can move on.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... ald-ratner
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Mike
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by Mike »

Agree. Bennett out.

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Caboosegg
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by Caboosegg »

Regan Grace mentioned again..... hes nothing without that saints side. I wouldnt play him for the exact reason in wouldnt play marshall.... they would get destroyed buy the NRL wingers and Centres.
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by DaveO »

Caboosegg wrote:Regan Grace mentioned again..... hes nothing without that saints side. I wouldnt play him for the exact reason in wouldnt play marshall.... they would get destroyed buy the NRL wingers and Centres.
That is what you took from that piece? Okay......
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by Caboosegg »

DaveO wrote: Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:34 am
Caboosegg wrote:Regan Grace mentioned again..... hes nothing without that saints side. I wouldnt play him for the exact reason in wouldnt play marshall.... they would get destroyed buy the NRL wingers and Centres.
That is what you took from that piece? Okay......
I understand the piece DaveO but grace keeps being brought up time and time again and how he should have been a instant GB pick.

Just had a whinge in the wrong thread really 😂
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by widdenoldboy »

Coaching was sub par for me, granted Tonga and NZ dominated the PTB (with refs help) but we didn't have any answer over the 3 games. The Southern Hemisphere teams can play the ref,we don't see to be able and did not hold the opposition down to the limit set by the refs.
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by fozzieskem »

Its been nothing more than a shambolic marketing exercise that's failed miserably,on all fronts.

Time to move on and forget about it now.
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by josie andrews »

Winging it: Wayne’s world has become a farce

Outrage erupted when Wayne Bennett only named two wingers in his Great Britain squad, and left people like Grand Final winner Regan Grace at home, much to the bemusement of rugby league fans.

After an injury to an already out-of-sorts Ryan Hall, who had only played a hand-full of games for NRL premieres Sydney Roosters this year anyway, surely the sensible thing to do would have been to call up another specialist winger? But not according to GB’s veteran Aussie coach. First, he floated the idea of moving Zak Hardaker from centre, before injury also claimed the Wigan fullback.

In response to that the coaching maestro Bennett decided to call on Warrington halfback Blake Austin on the wing against a confident, well-drilled New Zealand. To say the gamble didn’t work is probably the understatement of the year.

As this GB tour descended into the farcical, just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it suddenly did.

Step up Leeds Rhinos WINGER Ash Handley. An actual winger who was a regular source of tries for a struggling Rhinos team this year, fly him 12,000 miles to the other side of the world, then tell him he’s basically on a short holiday, and that he’s not needed, because the Australian coach has decided to pick Australian born halfback Austin on the wing again, despite his abject failure in the position against New Zealand, for a game full of trepidation against a very enthusiastic Papua New Guinea.

In the first game of this tour Great Britain were expected to beat Tonga, we thought it would be a struggle, but ultimately the apparent best that the British Isles has to offer were expected to succeed. However, alarm bells were definitely ringing from the first 10 minutes and by the end of that game they were almost deafening as Tonga simply did Great Britain for sheer enthusiasm. There was no shortage of craft and brute strength from them, but enthusiasm was simply the biggest difference.

In the two games since, against a strong Kiwis side, Bennett has continued to experiment, playing players out of position, looking clueless in attack, and short on any enthusiasm that was originally felt when the return of the Lions was announced with the slogan ‘THE PRIDE IS BACK’.

But finally, in what has simply become a complete shambles of a tour, how on earth do you justify flying a specialist winger to the other side of the world, to sit him in the stand, and watch an Australian, playing out of position, be in his specialist position, on what is surely reputation alone?

Having stepped out of the shadow of Hall, Handley has proved himself a quality winger for the Rhinos this year, he was a regular source of tries, a real bright spot in a team that endured another nightmare struggle this season. Some will point to the fact that he played outside Konrad Hurrell for Leeds, but having said that, for GB he could have played outside Jake Connor who was a constant, damaging thorn in the Kiwis side just 12 months ago for England.

The fact of the matter is that Handley should have been picked even before now, the damage that Bennett has caused by snubbing him and Grace, both young British wingers, to name Austin, is that it sends out exactly the wrong message to young British players and it shows up our sport as something of a laughing stock.

I said a few weeks ago I had less of a problem with Austin playing for GB than a few others, due to his mother being English, this is not simply a rant about picking Australian imports, but the fact is that Austin is a halfback, not a winger, if Austin is to play for Great Britain, at least play him in the position that he is best known for playing, don’t experiment with a mercurial talent like him in what is an entirely alien position to him.

Even Leeds legend Kevin Sinfield has had to weigh into the argument stating: “Do you give somebody a shirt because he’s flown for 24 hours to get here, or give it to the best man for the job?”

Now I’m not too sure what Handley will think of these comments from one of his club hierarchy at Emerald Headingley, but it really just sums up the backwards thinking of the whole selection process.

“Remember when Wayne Bennett played Blake Austin on the wing for Great Britain?” You’ll probably overhear this in a pub or at a match in a few years time as someone recalls the farcical events of the last few weeks. Let’s hope for Bennett’s sake the Lions can beat Papua New Guinea otherwise he will be classed, certainly in my eyes, as the worst Great Britain coach of all time.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/winging- ... rce-24509/
Anyone can support a team when it is winning, that takes no courage.
But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you,
that takes a lot of courage. #18thMan
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by fozzieskem »

With due respect to Ash Handley but really do people honestly,hand on heart think he’s international class?

Not sure I do,Marshall,Grace,joe Burgess,josh charnley even Tom lineham all way better than him yet people are getting their panties in a bunch over him not playing
jobo
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Re: Brian Carney: Is Wayne Bennett rugby league's Gerald Ratner?

Post by jobo »

fozzieskem wrote: Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:54 am With due respect to Ash Handley but really do people honestly,hand on heart think he’s international class?

Not sure I do,Marshall,Grace,joe Burgess,josh charnley even Tom lineham all way better than him yet people are getting their panties in a bunch over him not playing
Haven't seen enough of Handley but I've seen a fair bit of Charnley who, imo, should have been a shoe in.
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