KEY POINTS:
Wayne Bennett is often presented as a very difficult person. In truth, he's almost the exact opposite.
His background means his ideas and ideals are crystal clear, so it's pretty easy to work out what he will bring to the table as the New Zealand Rugby League tries to reassemble the disembowelled body of the Kiwis.
Discipline, drive, work ethic, loyalty among players and to the team, honesty, belief in themselves, clear goals and the motivation to achieve them.
Expect change. One of Bennett's favourite quotes is: "If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got."
Of all his coaching abilities, probably the most stunning is longevity: 21 years at one club in a fiercely competitive environment. It's an almost unrivalled record in any major sport worldwide.
He has continually managed to reinvent himself and the Broncos to keep them at the top of league's ladder and his controversial decisions at State of Origin level have played out as winners, too.
He dropped "King" Wally Lewis in 1998. The Broncos won the title. He brought Alf Langer back from England for the Origin in 2001 and won an unexpected victory. He ditched test centre Justin Hodges mid-season after finding out Hodges had signed with the Roosters. In 2006 he sacked the entire Broncos coaching staff including former players who were friends, and the team went on to win the title.
Bennett was born in Queensland and brought up in rural Warwick, where his father was a railway worker known as a drinker and gambler and the three Bennett kids were tarnished with his reputation, predicted never to make anything of themselves.
His father, Jimmy, shot through when young Wayne was 11. Mum Patsy started cooking and cleaning at local hotels and Wayne was sent to work at the local bacon factory at age 13 to help make ends meet.
He had nothing to give his mother in return, Bennett said later, bar a promise that he would not drink and gamble. He still doesn't, nor does he smoke.
He had to finish learning to read by himself in order to pass the examination for the police cadets but did so in 1966 and rose to the rank of inspector.
It was during his police years that Bennett started playing league, making the Queensland team from 1971 to 1973 as a winger, and being selected for the Kangaroos' tour of NZ in 1973.
Then followed a succession of coaching jobs, beginning with colts, progressing to wins in the Brisbane championship then to a full-time job as assistant at the Canberra Raiders under Tim Sheens in 1987.
The Broncos were launched in 1988 and Bennett was allowed by Canberra to slide out of the three remaining years on his contract to take over the new boys. He's been there ever since.
Only Sheens has more NRL games as a coach under his belt.
Now 58 and with six premiership titles behind him, Bennett's drive to succeed remains.
He has three children with wife Trish - Elizabeth, who is married to former Queensland, North Sydney and Broncos five-eighths Ben Ikin, Justin, who was born healthy but has remained at the mental age of a child since suffering a violent fit after a vaccine injection, and Kath who was born disabled.
The difficulties with Justin and Kath ground him, Bennett believes. Justin doesn't care whether the Broncos win or lose, Bennett told me once - he'll run out to greet him after a game in a Panthers jersey.
As his own coaching mentors Bennett names Queenslander Bob Bax, Sharks administrator Ron Massey and Eels legend Jack Gibson. Bax coached in the Brisbane competition for 18 years and made the grand final 14 times, winning nine. Gibson won premierships with Eastern Suburbs and St George before taking Parramatta to their first title in 1981 and repeating the feat in 1992 and 1993.
Bax taught Bennett to befriend the most influential player in the team and that would make the rest easy. Massey proved that when you get management right the rest will follow. And Gibson taught him about handling pressure.
There'll be plenty in his new job with the Kiwis, not least appeasing disaffected players and fans. Though he has an easier run than predecessor Gary Kemble. Few wanted Kemble. Everyone, it appears, wants Bennett.
He believes the impact of a coach is not as great as many believe, saying in his book Don't Die With the Music in You: "Fans over-rate the role of a coach. This I know because I just can't believe any coach is as good as they think they are, nor as bad."
There's another quote from Bennett's book which seems pertinent after Kemble's departure in the face of player pressure: "So what's more important, a good coach or a good captain? I'd have to say a good captain. A good coach with a bad captain, he's struggling. A good captain with a bad coach, he's making the coach look good."
Will Roy Asotasi survive as captain? It would be the sensible move given his combination of youth and experience. Bennett will want a free hand with such decisions - no baggage from the NZRL.
He lists reasons why people coach: "One is ego. I coach because I like being part of a team and I can't play anymore. And people coach because they think they can."
Bennett rates the ability to communicate as the greatest attribute for a coach. Then there's knowledge of the game, vision for how you want to play and how you're going to achieve it, getting people to work together and confidence.
Players say Bennett is a great motivator, that they want to perform well for him. Off the field he is a father figure who also mentors them in life.
The Aussie legend's interest in the Kiwis was sparked when he took the All Golds for their game against a Northern Union side before last year's ill-starred Kiwis tour.
Bennett was among those who visited the grave of Albert Baskerville, who organised the first international league tour to Australia and England. He was given a copy of John Haynes' book From All Blacks to All Golds which details the tour and admitted he'd learned plenty about the birth of the international game and it had fascinated him. He also enjoyed coaching a team of talented players including the hugely experienced Ruben Wiki and Stacey Jones. Expect those two to be called in as mentors.
Another former Kiwi high in Bennett's estimation is former captain Stephen Kearney. Bennett wants the younger man as his assistant, to bridge any gap with the players. And from the NZRL's point of view that's a good move, hopefully allowing Kearney to move smoothly into the top job once he feels capable, while avoiding the soap operas - the Gary Freeman/Daniel Anderson/Bluey McClennan drama and the Gary Kemble version of January 2008.
How long will Bennett keep going?
He is signed to coach the Broncos through 2009 but speculation is mounting that he will leave after this season. There is tension between him and some in management. There was some controversy when it was revealed that a group of Brisbane businessmen, "The Thoroughbreds", had helped arrange a A$1 million ($1.15 million) payment to Bennett over 10 years, aimed at keeping him at the club in the face of bigger offers and putting money aside to pay for care for his two disabled children.
Bennett says he'll continue as long as he feels enthusiastic and believes that he has what it takes to compete and compete well.
Change is part of that, growing with the game and the times. Age is not. "I'm not a dinosaur because I'm 57 or because I've been there 20 years," he said last year in marking the occasion at the Broncos. "I'm a dinosaur if I don't want to change and if I have people around me who resist change as well."
WAYNE BENNETT
Born: January 1, 1950, Queensland.
Raised in Warwick, left school at 13 to work in a bacon factory to support his family after his father left them.
At 16 joined the police cadets, rose to the rank of inspector.
Winger who played seven games for Queensland 1971-73, two non-test games for the Kangaroos on the New Zealand tour of 1971.
Coaching career:
In the Brisbane competition: 1976 Ipswich Brothers; 1977-79, Southern Suburbs; 1980-82 Brothers; 1984-85 Southern Suburbs.
In the NRL: 1987 assistant at Canberra, lost the grand final to Manly 18-8; Broncos 1988-onwards. Won every grand final they have contested, in 1992, 1993, 1997 and 1998, 2000 and 2006.
State of Origin: 1986-88, 1998, 2001-2003. Won the series 1987, 1988, 2001.
Kangaroos: coach 1998, 2004-2005. Beat NZ 2-1 in 1998, lost Tri Nations final 24-0 to NZ 2005.
STEPHEN KEARNEY
Junior Kiwis captain 1992.
NRL: Wests 1992-94, 46 games; Warriors 1995-98, 79 games; Melbourne Storm 1999-2004, 139 games including premiership title 1999.
Super League: Hull 2005-06.
Kiwis: 45 games 1993-2003. Youngest captain (21 years 148 days) when appointed during the 1993 tour of Great Britain. Captain of the NZ side that won the Super League World Nines title in 1997.
Assistant coach at Melbourne Storm 2006-08.
