Graham Lowe: The beauty of Wayne Bennett

Broncos Wayne Bennett. Photo / Getty

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett is seen by many as the game's greatest ever coach. I'm not sure about that but he's certainly been the best around for a long time.

I've known Wayne since the late 70's when he was coaching Brothers in Brisbane's Winfield Cup and I was coaching Norths.

He's a good bloke.

What I admire most about his coaching is that his teams have always played the game of rugby league as it should be played.

On the other hand the game has seen many coaches who have just worked the rules of the game. This is because it's easy to do. They have a compressed defensive line and run from dummy half when they have a the ball. Boring as batshit.

But Bennett certainly hasn't ever followed that trend, his teams are a pleasure and exciting to watch. And because they make use of the ball, they are also usually successful.

There's a lot of footy yet to be played but once again, the Broncos are certainly well placed to become the champions once more.

There is plenty of strong lobbying at the moment for a second Brisbane team and few could argue against the strong quality of playing numbers in South East Queensland.

But I'm not convinced it is such a good thing. The Broncos are maybe the best brand in the game so why risk diluting that.

There is only one other club that has the local player talent on their doorstep that Brisbane enjoys and that is Warriors.

Penrith have a massive junior base but the Warriors have the country and even though we are a rugby union nation, there are some amazing rugby league clubs throughout our land.

And there is plenty of rugby talent that could easily make the change.

I've seen quite a bit of local footy this year and while I don't think Auckland's Fox Memorial competition is as strong as it once was, individually there is player talent to burn.

But Brisbane is unique and does have advantages.

Consistently they enjoy great weather, they have the best stadium in the game, great corporate and State Government support and millions of kids who just want to play for the Broncos.

You'd have to plan pretty hard to stuff that up.

But it all comes back down to how your team plays the game, and the Broncos traditionally have played a high speed draw and pass game that few have been able to match.

It's magic is it's simplicity.

Wayne also knows talent when he sees it and doesn't muck around putting it straight into his first team.

But he is a funny bugger at times and seems to live in Wayne's world. Certainly one or two of the bias Channel 9 commentators would love to see the Broncos/Queensland crumble but it's never going to happen.

The Broncos are the bench mark and they are exactly where the Warriors need to be.

And understanding a simple message such as "what is a winning team" will go a long way to helping the Warriors.