KEY POINTS:
Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
New Zealand Rugby League has had many hours of need - there aren't enough hours in the day to remember them all.
But never has a man of Wayne Bennett's calibre ridden into town to save the citizens. If the Kiwis could win Friday's centenary test, new coach Steve Kearney will be the man on a white horse while Bennett is seen as the hired gunslinger who made it all happen from the shadows.
Bennett has arrived in a town of tumbleweed thinking and outlaw-like behaviour.
The Kiwis are lucky to have this tall, brooding enigma, rated by some Aussies as league's greatest coach behind the legendary trailblazer Jack Gibson.
What will the former Queensland, Australian and departing Brisbane coach bring as Kearney's assistant? Will he, it is natural to ask, remain as the assistant to a rookie coach, be inclined to take over or perhaps just confuse the chain of command through the power of his presence.
Will he be a saint, not just with his new club, but with the topsy-turvy Kiwis? How will 21 years of success-laden top grade experience be made significant in a few test training runs?
The 58-year-old Bennett is a walking, muttering rock - the classic combo of father figure and stern headmaster.
Great players, such as Allan Langer, have shaken in their boots at the prospect of being late to a Bennett training session. The Broncos' boss has ejected friend and youngsters alike from the Broncos for fading in their jobs or failing behaviour.
Players have told of the enormous impact his moral compass has had on their lives, although the needle has trembled of late thanks to the magnetic pull of the dollar.
Bennett took massive and secret payments from a mining magnate, part of what he says is the effort to ensure his two disabled children are always cared for. These payments have confused rather than outright tarnished his reputation in Brisbane - the leaking of stories about them led to Bennett quitting the Broncos where his relations with the board were strained by his earlier attempt to join the Roosters.
Bennett is a powerful, determined man, and such a character will inevitably attract devotion and find detractors.
Shane Webcke, the great warhorse prop, actually regarded Bennett as a surrogate father, even telephoning him to confess at having stabbed the coach in the back. Webcke's admiration and trust exhibits the pull Bennett has on players, often exerted through sage words that appear to leak from the side of his craggy jaw. Bennett speaks as if he's trying to bounce his words off the floor, but the message is direct.
The 2007 Kiwis lacked authority and class and were a rabble on and off the field, especially in a disgraceful showing at Wellington.
In Gary Kemble's opening salvo against the Australians, the new coach was seen laughing - presumably from embarrassment - in the coaching box. There was also an alleged and serious off-field incident involving players, something that was never properly resolved in many opinions.
The TV shot of Kemble laughing was unfortunate television timing but hinted this was a plot already lost. You'd have trouble catching Bennett smiling at the best of times.
Rumours had it that at least one Kiwi then wined and dined his way around Britain, where the team was humiliated in the test series.
New Zealand league is crying out for a rock, someone who will command the respect Bennett finds.
He comes from the classic school of top grade coach, a fine player himself but one who never found the ultimate accolades. The former Queensland wing toured New Zealand with Australia but did not play a test. This near-but-yet-so-far experience often drives great coaches. But Bennett's personality came from elsewhere. Abandoned by an alcoholic father, and living in a small town where he and his siblings may have felt looked down upon, he promised his mother he would never drink, smoke or gamble.
His ability to influence came early.
His younger brother Bob (who has coached Papua New Guinea) is more gregarious - not a difficult task - yet deliberately followed his brother's example in this behaviour code.
Some of Bennett's most famous friends have been colourful characters though, and acquaintances say there is a warmth behind the cold exterior.
You suspect though that in the time available, the fireside chats will be forsaken and the Kiwis will be left fearing the roasting that may never come.
Sonny Bill Williams is the Kiwi key.
Williams is among the best off-loaders who have ever played the game. But he has played for one of the worst-coached sides in the NRL.
Under Steve Folkes, the Bulldogs can storm up the field, but suddenly run out of ideas. Rather than being part of a plan, either as a ball player or decoy, Williams becomes the escape hatch for an attacking play when the Bulldogs unravel.
He gets a remarkable number of passes away, and has the ball available on many more. There should be opportunities aplenty when SBW is on the field.
Bennett, you suspect, will want Williams to have the energy and opportunity to be heavily involved near Australia's goal line. This is a blindingly obvious tactic, but not so easy to implement, especially as Williams will be obsessively guarded.
Williams' glittering rise has been spiked by alcohol troubles and the Bulldogs' erratic form. Bennett, the taciturn father figure, might be just the man to get the best out of the young star and find a simple way for his complex skills to flourish. It is a fascinating prospect.
A key to Kearney's success as Craig Bellamy's assistant at Melbourne is the respect he wins from players. So with Bennett on board, this should be a strength in the new coaching regime.
In the heat of battle, Bennett is always calm in the halftime dressing room, and his presence will help Kearney deal with the pressure.
As the assistant, Bennett will be relieved of a task he finds onerous - dealing with the press. He did allow a reality television series to go behind the scenes with his club and family, but this also fits in with his quest for control. Infamously, he ducked the press after the Kangaroos were beaten in the 2005 Tri-Nations final.
Yet Bennett takes his role as a sort of league Holy Father seriously. He promotes the international game, a reason why he joined the Kiwis and coached the All Golds last year where he was a big hit. The famed Aussie halfback Andrew Johns has also told how Bennett offered sound advice to help him recover from a knee injury, despite playing for an opposing club.
But these are red herrings for now in assessing his impact on the Kiwis.
Bennett will be in uncharted waters, without the outright mantle of command and co-coaching a team minus proven matchwinners in key positions.
Great players make great coaches. Bennett has had Wally Lewis, Allan Langer, Darren Lockyer, a couple of Walters et al in his previous teams. He has been able to shape and mould players and combinations, but is coming in cold this time.
Lockyer is the king of the last-gasp winning play, able to pull the right strings to the last second. Now Lockyer is on the other side, in a backline that is potentially the greatest on a test field.
In response, the Kiwis need steady hands and clear thinking to release their own brilliance. There are good early signs.
Roy Asotasi has rightly been retained as captain. Asotasi deserves a medal for speaking out against Kemble - a coach out of his depth - and not the bagging he has received from old luminaries. To have dumped Asotasi as some urged, would have invited confusion in the camp because he is a natural leader of this generation of players with their own codes of unity far removed from the wobbly NZRU and its former employees.
The Kiwi selections also have a harder edge to them, which may have something to do with Bennett. Gone are players with questionable concentration and fitness such as Fuifui Moimoi and Epalahame Lauaki, although crazy Frank Pritchard has made the squad. Bennett's impact on Pritchard - a potential gamebreaker - will also be interesting.
The odds are heavily against the Kiwis because of the abundant brilliance in the Australian backline, but those odds improve with Bennett on board.
The wider question for New Zealand is whether they might try to keep Bennett, as a founding father to lasting, instead of frustratingly sporadic, success.
