Wayne Bennett will pride himself on making Matt Lodge a better man, says Wally Lewis

Joshua Thomas

Wayne Bennett will pride himself on making Matt Lodge a better man, says Wally Lewis image

Queensland rugby league legend Wally Lewis believes Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett will take a personal interest in ensuring new signing Matt Lodge makes up for past mistakes.

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The Broncos are having to deal with fresh controversy surrounding Lodge after violent vision emerged of the assault he committed back in 2015.

Fans have threatened to boycott their side should he play, but Lewis thinks Bennett hasn't signed Lodge simply from a playing point of view. 

"With the Broncos, Wayne Bennett would have taken this on as a little bit of a personal matter," Lewis said on Sports Sunday.

"Being a former policeman himself, I'm sure that he's had one or two before where he likes to correct the sins they've committed previously.

"He will pride himself on making him (Lodge) a better man at the end of day, but whether that is going anywhere in the right direction of being able to make up for this, each individual will make up their own decision."


Lewis was careful not say whether he believes Lodge should be allowed to play or not, but admitted the NRL needs to take some initiative. 

"If the NRL are saying it's not their case, they're obviously hoping the pressure will go to somebody else," he said. 

"It's not creating some complimentary things for the National Rugby League at the moment."

Should he be selected for Brisbane, Lodge will play his first game of NRL in nearly three years against the Dragons on Thursday night.

Joshua Thomas

Joshua Thomas Photo

Josh has been covering sport for nearly a decade now having fallen in love with football at a young age. A UTS graduate, Josh has previously worked for GOAL and now covers football closely for The Sporting News.