Wayne Bennett

His family had ties to the police and rugby league in South East Queensland through his uncle, 1948 Kangaroo forward Eddie Brosnan.

Bennett's playing career began with appearances for Warwick and Toowoomba in the South-West District Rugby League, and the All Whites in the Ipswich Rugby League.

His first-grade appearances were for Past Brothers and Southern Suburbs in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership (BRL).

Wayne James Bennett (born 1 January 1950), also known by the nickname "Benny", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player.

He is currently the head coach of the Dolphins in the National Rugby League (NRL), and has previously coached the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Brisbane Broncos, the Newcastle Knights, the St George Illawarra Dragons, the Canberra Raiders, the Queensland Maroons State of Origin team, the NRL All Stars and the Australian Kangaroos national team as well as the England and Great Britain national teams.

As a player, Bennett was an Australian international and Queensland interstate representative or in the 1970s.

He also played at club level with the Huddersfield Giants in England.

He was a talented and goal-kicker, and represented Queensland nine times between 1971 and 1973, including seven games against New South Wales.

Coached by Bob Bax, Bennett credits him as being a major influence in his own later coaching career.

Bennett also played two tour matches for Australia on the 1971 tour of New Zealand.

In 1972, Bennett played for Toowoomba in the last Bulimba Cup Final against Brisbane.

After that, he played for Huddersfield in England alongside fellow Queenslander and future brother-in-law Greg Veivers.

Bennett played for Brisbane's Brothers club and under coach Paul Broughton reached the 1974 Grand Final which they lost to Fortitude Valley.

Bennett was the top tryscorer in the 1975 Brisbane Rugby League season.

From 1975-77, Bennett coached the U18s Queensland Police Academy in the Brisbane local competition and the Police Academy Cadet Team versus the NSW Police Academy.

Before becoming a full-time football coach in 1976, Bennett worked as a Queensland Police officer.

Bennett was born in the small township of Allora, Queensland, Australia.

He grew up in a working-class family in nearby Warwick with an alcoholic father who deserted the family when Wayne was eleven years old, resulting in him entering the workforce at an early age.

He has two sisters, Michelle and Gretta and two brothers, Robert and Dwight.

Bennett is an avowed non-smoker, non-drinker and non-gambler.

Before becoming involved with the Queensland Rugby League on a full-time basis, Bennett commenced work as a police officer at age fifteen while playing junior rugby league in Warwick.

In 1976, he began full-time coaching in Ipswich, coaching three games for the midweek Amco and Carlton Cups, before moving to Brisbane Rugby League Premiership sides, Souths (who he captain-coached in 1977) and Brothers.

After the births of his three children, Bennett had a break from coaching.

He returned in 1983 as coach of Souths Acacia Ridge under 16s as well as the Queensland Police Academy under 18s team which he took to a premiership.

He also worked as the Police Academy's fitness instructor.

Bennett then took over the Souths job and took them to the 1984 grand final, which they lost to the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls.

Revenge was to come a year later when the Bennett-coached Magpies defeated the Seagulls 10–8 in the BRL grand final to take the premiership.

This was against a Seagulls line-up featuring Australian captain Wally Lewis and centre Gene Miles, both of whom would later captain the Brisbane Broncos under Bennett.

Widely regarded as one of the sport's greatest ever coaches, Bennett holds the Australian rugby league coaching record for the most grand final wins, winning seven premierships from ten grand final appearances in the NRL and its predecessors the Super League and New South Wales Rugby League, plus one premiership in the Brisbane Rugby League with Southern Suburbs in 1985.

Bennett also holds the records for most seasons with a single club; twenty-four with the Brisbane Broncos, most games won as coach, and most games coached at over a thousand first-grade games, being recognised by the NRL in Round 10 of the 2023 season as having coached 900 games in the competition and its predecessors.

Additionally, he was a coaching adviser to the Tonga national rugby league team in 2022 and the assistant head coach of New Zealand in 2008.

In 1986, Bennett took over from Des Morris as coach of the Queensland State of Origin team.

The Maroons were beaten 3–0 in a series whitewash that year; however, Bennett was retained as Queensland's coach for two more years.

In 1987, Bennett moved interstate to join the NSWRL's Winfield Cup Premiership when he was appointed co-coach of the Canberra Raiders alongside then Australian team coach Don Furner.

With the Queensland side, Bennett won the 1987 State of Origin series.

By the end of the 1987 NSWRL season, he and Furner had guided the Raiders to their first Grand Final which was lost to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 18–8.

Bennett was appointed to be the first coach of the Brisbane Broncos when the club was formed in 1988.

That season with the Maroons, he defeated New South Wales in a 3 nil whitewash in the State of Origin, but Bennett discontinued his representative coaching to focus on the Broncos.

Bennett's reputation for being able to make tough and even unpopular decisions was characterised by his sacking of Wally Lewis as club captain in 1990.

At the end of the season, Lewis was not made an offer large enough to retain him, with Bennett citing salary cap restrictions and the need to keep Sydney clubs away from more junior talent coming through.