Wynne Gray: Finding inspiration from within our shores

Wayne Bennett. Photo / Getty Images

You've gotta know which political reins to pull across the Ditch and Dingo Deans is clearly learning fast as he linked up with Wallaby Wayne in the run-in to the World Cup.

There's no great love between the codes in Convictville, but when you snare a sporting icon like Wayne Bennett to assist your campaign it's a move guaranteed to collect a few stray supporters.

The All Black coaching trio has been down that cross-pollination coaching road. In one of their first moves after surviving the post-2007 World Cup ballot they used Bennett and former Australia now NZ cricket director John Buchanan to address the troops.

Only Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen could assess the value of those chats in a season when they won 13 tests and lost two.

But let's imagine the Three Wise Men are thinking about spicing up their coaching content this season with a few guest celebrities.

Who would get the guest gigs on a rostrum carrying a banner from legendary basketball coach John Wooden - "Ability may get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there" - as a backdrop.

Blokes like basketball coach Phil Jackson, skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark or surfing great Kelly Slater would do the business, but the NZRU asks us to trim costs so we go local. We will also limit ourselves to six speakers.

All Black icon, the man voted Player of the Century, Sir Colin Earl Meads will be MC and double as a go-to patron outside the six, during the season.

He will bring colour, inspiration and clout. When necessary he can slip off and give the forwards a tune-up if they get a little blase.

All Blacks of yesteryear still quake about the powerful tirade Meads delivered as team manager after they lost the first test in France in 1995.

Then during appropriate times at All Black training camps, "Pinetree"' will introduce his guests. Two guests will attend each session.

We will lead off with Dame Susan Devoy and Jonah Lomu, to inspire and explain what got them to the top and kept them there, and in Lomu's case the health obstacles he had to overcome to stay in the team.

Next up will be cyclist Sarah Ulmer and mountaineer Mark Inglis. The All Blacks will hear the impassioned delight in Ulmer's recollections, then marvel at Inglis' triumphs on his artificial limbs.

Last up Oscar Kightley and Willie Apiata, VC. There will be humour from Kightley mixed with touches of his goalsetting humanity while Apiata will talk of sacrifice and caring for comrades. The Convicts can have Bennett, we're moving on.