Wayne Bennett is a bloke who’d be AWOL all Christmas morning before swooping in five minutes before lunch to scoff turkey and nick off before the dishes are done.
Take nothing away from the supercoach, but nowadays he’s a specialist whisperer better known for capitalising on pre-prepared rosters and leaving his successor looking like a mug.
But 2025 has seen the tables turn on master and turkey, with Kristian Woolf now dishing up the succulence and Bennett left looking like a giblet.
Coaches don’t come better prepared than Woolf, with the 50-year-old treading a well-worn path on his journey to NRL coaching.
Firstly picking up a routine batch of trophies in English Super League as coach of St Helens, he returned home to appropriately serve his time in the humbling surrounds of Australian rugby league waiting for someone to cop the sack.
But despite amassing a fine resume, Woolf then tragically went and blew it all by accepting a two-year apprenticeship under Bennett.
That’s why the rookie was on a hiding to nothing at the start of the season when he filled the bony backside groove left in the Redcliffe hot seat by his departing mentor.
As attested by the cemetery of assistant coaches left in Bennett’s wake over the years like Ivan Henjak, Steve Price and Jason Demetriou, there is little to gain from succeeding the veteran other than an inferiority complex and a payout.
Even with a strategy to just ‘keep doing what he did’, these roadkill lambs quickly discovered that Bennett’s seemingly-transferable methods were only effective when sidemouthed in three syllables and four decibels.
And after losing his first four games in charge – all while Bennett was down south piloting the Rabbitohs to a 4-1 start – Woolf was unbackable to be the latest victim to drown in Bennett’s choppy wake.
But not only has Woolf since survived, he’s resoundingly overtaken the old magoo with a brand of footy that is unrepentantly positive.
While Bennett finds himself in a hellacious wooden spoon battle, Woolf has barged the Dolphins in to finals calculations with a blast of lights-out front-foot eyes-up footy that makes the Harlem Globetrotters look like northern hemisphere rugby.
Kristian Woolf.. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Beginning with a rabid three-game tear from round 12 that netted an inconceivable cumulative scoreline of 158-18, the Dolphins have continued since on a wondrous cruise to the verge of history.
Not only are they on the cusp of qualifying for the top eight for the first time in the club’s short existence, Woolf is also firming for two plaudits:
The Coach of the Year Award, and the first coach in the game considered an upgrade on Bennett.
Better yet, the former Tonga coach has achieved this rise by plotting his own brand of footy that is eons removed from the Bennett template of a building a team that 1. Runs hard and tackles hard, and 2. Has a truckload of good players.
While the 75-year-old’s teams are hardly dour, his discerning eye and conservative principles mean they are usually jacked-up outfits that roll up the sleeves and always spade before they parade.
On the other hand, Woolf’s side is injury ravaged yet still doling out bulk points from all points of the map like some kinda indiscriminate frequent flyer program.
This breakout has been lead by precocious halfback Isaiya Katoa, the 21 year old mesmerist whose bargain $650k wage is like tipping a handful of sea monkeys in to a fish tank and watching one grow in to Aquaman.
More incredibly, Woolf’s side has continued shredding at all costs even though a hectic injury crisis has left him with a B-Team forward pack.
The loss of Herbie Farnworth to a long term hamstring injury on Friday night is another major blow, but the vibe of this ball-tearing attack seemingly runs deeper than just its quality players.
It’s a mirror of Woolf’s rise, the man who’s bucked history as the first coach who’s turned master to Bennett’s mug.
