Bennett like Beckham

While Grumpy be no rap for the coaching skills of Rugby Union's Eddie Jones, hats off to the skeleton with skin - Australian Rugby League's Wayne Bennett - who resigned as national coach last night.

I've been a big fan of Bennett's since he coached my boyhood team, the mighty Southern Suburbs Magpies, from 28 years in the Rugby League wilderness to Brisbane champions in the late 1970s - co-incidentally the last time the Australian Kangaroos lost a series.

(BTW, if anybody wants to purchase a set of autographs of that full Kangaroo side before they left for England and France in 1978, please leave a post and we'll talk turkey.)

Although Bennett presided over the Kangaroos' recent loss of the tri-nations series in England, it should be remembered that with Rugby Union now able to poach League's best backline players the Kangaroos' aura has blurred over recent years.

Moreover, the tri-nations isn't just any series. It's a round-robin championship between the world's three best sides, with the odds of the Kangaroos finally failing significantly higher than in a regular three-Test series between Australia and one other nation.

No, in spite of his taciturn ways, the skeleton has been a great coach for a long, long time.

Long after this copybook smudge is forgotten, the memory of Bennett as super coach of the Queensland Maroons, Brisbane Broncos and (of course) the mighty Magpies will remain.