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Wayne Bennett brings out my inner Monkee. When it comes to the skinny coach, I'm a believer.

Given his standing as the greatest coach in the sport, you might think that all league fans would be believers too.

Not so. Sure he won six premierships with the Brisbane Broncos, but that team had too many good players and lots of unfair advantages and, um, stuff. Then he went to the Dragons and he was certain to fail but somehow he got lucky and won another comp. But it's going to be great watching him eat humble pie now, living through his own personal Knightmare with the lowly Newcastle.

Knockers knock. Coaches coach. And winners win.

Bennett is a winner. Brisbane, St George-Illawarra, Queensland, the national side – put him in charge of the Toowoomba Taipans table tennis team and he will lift them towards victory. He understands the mechanics of coaching. He knows how to get the support of powerful backroom figures, and he knows how to get the right people around him. He sits down with players and shows he understands and cares about them, and consequently they play their hearts out for him. He is tactically astute both on- and off-field.

The knockers will note that he is 61. Other coaches – for example his replacement at the Dragons, Steve Price – are young enough to be his children. Some of the players he coaches could conceivably be his grandchildren. Isn't coaching in the NRL a young man's game? Shouldn't he be off on his beloved farm in Queensland driving a tractor and writing an extra chapter for his memoirs?

These people forget that Bennett is a keen student of sport in the USA, a nation where revered coaches often hold the reins into old age. If 61 seems elderly, what will they say if Benny is coaching the new Darwin franchise in 2020? Don't rule him out.

One of the buzz terms that has bled into sport from the corporate sphere is 'due diligence'. In Latin it is 'caveat emptor'. When Bennett signed with the Knights he was satisfied he could work with Nathan Tinkler, the maverick mining billionaire who assumed ownership of the club in March this year. He knows that the club now has access to more back-office money than any other franchise, and while this cannot legally go into increased player payments there are myriad ways in which extra cash will boost the club.

The Knights showed spirit to make it to eighth spot in 2011, and probably overperformed with a mediocre squad. So far, 18 players have been offloaded prior to 2012. The list includes some honest toilers such as Isaac De Gois and Daniel Tolar, but with the exception of retiring centre Adam MacDougall they were triers rather than stars.

The combination of Bennett magic and Tinkler money has attracted some quality recruits for the new season. Darius Boyd has followed his mentor once again, and Kade Snowden is rated as potentially the best prop in the game. Adam Cuthbertson and Daine Laurie are poster-boys for unfulfilled potential; each is on a last chance. The romantic in Bennett has lured ageing Knights favourites Danny Buderus and Timana Tahu back on one- and two-year deals respectively.

The playing roster is not quite pennant-worthy yet, but if he can rebuild the confidence of key playmaker Jarrod Mullen and take youngsters Ryan Stig, Zane Tetevano and Siuatonga Likiliki to a new level the Knights will threaten for the top four in 2012. Bennett's shrewdest move is retaining 2011 coach Rick Stone as his assistant, and attracting level-headed Graham Murray to the fold.

Newcastle is one of the great bastions of rugby league in this country, and the Knights have only provided their fanatical supporters with two premierships to date. The region deserves more success. Winning NRL grand finals is no easy feat. No new coach arrives with glory guaranteed. But the combination of Bennett, Buderus and the billionaire? I said I'm a believer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a believer, yeah, I'm a believer. I'm a believer…

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of BigPond Sport.

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