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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows part of a documentary about Wayne Bennett, long-time coach of the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team. It includes images from his childhood, an interview with him and his brother Bob, comments from sports journalist Roy Masters and footage of the Brisbane Broncos training and playing competition matches. Bennett describes his personal philosophy and the part that his difficult upbringing played in forming it. The clip includes intertitles.

Educational value points

• Wayne Bennett (1950-), who was born in Warwick, Queensland, is the subject of this documentary. Bennett’s childhood was very much affected by his violent, alcoholic father, who deserted the family when Wayne was 8 years old. In spite of his troubled and impoverished family life, Bennett went on to serve in the police force and later to become a rugby league coach, Queensland director of coaching, Australian coach and State of Origin coach. He was also voted Queensland Father of the Year. Bennett’s perseverance, fairness and honesty have made him a highly respected coach.

• Bennett made a conscious decision not to drink, smoke or gamble so that his mother would not suffer at his hands a repeat of her experiences with his father. His brother Bob explains that Wayne also provided a positive role model for younger family members to follow.

• Wayne Bennett’s comments suggest that parents can act as models for children to either copy or define themselves against. This footage challenges the widely held belief that it is inevitable that children will follow patterns set by their parents, particularly sons and their fathers. The interview provides a strong impression that being different from his father was a profound motivation for Wayne, as was a need to repay and acknowledge his mother’s support. The interview presents these motivations as underpinning Wayne’s philosophy of acceptance and tolerance.

• The filmmaker juxtaposes sporting scenes with quiet personal reflections expressed during the interview so as to present both the public and private sides of Wayne Bennett. Music that builds in intensity accompanies footage of football training, players entering the arena and the game itself, which culminates in the 'try’, one of the most exciting moments in any rugby league match. The try is used here to strategic effect to highlight the fierce competition of the sport, in contrast to the intimacy of the interview.

• Rugby league has been played in Australia since its inception in England in 1895, when clubs in northern England split from the Rugby Football Union. From 1910 rugby league has been considered the premier winter sport in New South Wales and Queensland. However, Australia’s dominance in events such as the Tri Nations Championship and recent promotional moves into other states have secured an even wider audience for the sport.

• This clip is from the popular Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program Australian Story, which celebrated a decade of storytelling in 2005. The program has won many accolades, including seven Walkley awards for excellence in journalism and four Logies, the Australian television industry awards. The style of the program is such that the subjects appear to narrate their own stories.

Wayne tells his story to the interviewer. The interview is intercut with pictures from Wayne’s childhood and youth.
Wayne Bennett, Brisbane Broncos coach I always felt that was Dad’s, you know, biggest shortcoming. And as I grew into adulthood, I just made sure that I never looked down on anybody, regardless of their situation, ‘cause I knew what I’d experienced and I didn’t think anyone had that right to do that because it’s really important to me to treat everybody fairly, regardless of who’s your dad, what your background is, whether you’ve got great wealth or you’re just, you know, a battler. It’s what you’ve got to offer that’s important to me and I don’t care about your background. An enormous amount of pressure in those years. All my friends wanted me to drink. I just didn’t know any other way to thank my mother for all that she’d been through. I just said to her one day, said, ‘Mum, I’m not gonna drink.’ And that was about all that was said and I didn’t drink because I didn’t want to let her down.

Bob Bennett, Wayne’s brother, is interviewed.
Bob Bennett He led the way and I was pretty fortunate. I had an older brother that was smart and made good decisions and I followed his decisions and I didn’t drink and I didn’t smoke and I didn’t gamble and that was all because Wayne didn’t do it and I just followed the lead.

The Broncos are training on the rugby field.
Subtitle: March 18, 1999. The Broncos, reigning premiers for two years, have lost the first two matches of the ’99 season.
Wayne (in voice-over) And they say that the day you sign the contract, you know, is also the day you’ve resigned – it’s just a matter of when.

Subtitle: Brisbane v Melbourne, March 21, 1999
The Brisbane Broncos walk onto the field. Wayne Bennett goes up in the stands to watch the game.
Commentator And now the reigning champions, the Brisbane Broncos. The General’s leading them out against the Melbourne Storm…

Roy Masters is interviewed.
Roy Masters, sports journalist Bennett has been able to survive 11 years, which demonstrates quite clearly that he has been a man that’s displayed an enormous amount of integrity and honesty over that period of time.