Remember last week when I said everyone in Brisbane was going batshit crazy? Well it seems the fun hasn’t stopped yet!
Ivan Henjak was sensationally fired last night a few weeks out from the kickoff to the 2011 season.
He will be replaced by assistant coach Anthony Griffin, who has only been given a deal that lasts through to the end of the 2011 season.
For a long time there have been stories about the way Henjak treated players. It is common knowledge that Darren Lockyer didn’t like him, a bit of a bad start when you are coaching the Brisbane Broncos.
Even so, Henjak took over a very difficult Broncos coaching job. The team needed to be rebuilt after losing key players. The playing staff he had to use, which didn’t like the way he treated them, had their moments but for the most part failed to deliver on the field.
He was always going to be a different style of coach than Wayne Bennett, and I’ve got to say, I don’t like seeing the playing group picking and choosing the coach. I think its always a sign of deeper problems, of poor management and the inmates running the asylum.
The hot tip now of course is that Wayne Bennett will head back to the Broncos for the 2012 season. Moving back home, coaching his home town team, turning down the huge money that will be on offer at South Sydney.
I think that decision will rest on the back of how Bennett feels physically after the end of what is going to be a long 2011 season for him.
As for the Broncos, there are some pretty handy coaches available outside of Bennett. Ricky Stuart and Michael Maguire spring to mind.
There was some talk that Darren Lockyer should become a player/coach, which I find completely ridiculous. Its hard enough doing one or the other, but doing both, please….its 2011.
Its a good coaching job to take over in Brisbane. I dare say that if the Broncos approached Phil Gould with it, even he would be willing to take it on. However it does come with a lot of baggage and a lot of scrutiny and, as always in Queensland, if you’re not one of them, you are on borrowed time anyway.
