Gorden Tallis has revealed South Sydney coach Wayne Bennett predicted his men would be too strong for arch-rivals the Sydney Roosters prior to Friday’s 26-16 victory at Stadium Australia.
A coach telling a former player his side will win on the weekend is nothing out of the ordinary.
But Bennett isn’t your typical NRL boss and is known to keep his cards close, even when he is away from the media spotlight.
Speaking on Fox League on Friday night, Tallis revealed he crossed paths with his ex-boss in the lead up to the Round 3 blockbuster and was taken aback when Bennett tipped his Bunnies to win.
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“I bumped into Wayne early in the week, and he doesn’t say too much, but I said, ‘Hey coach, how are you going? How do you thinking you’ll go?” Tallis told Fox League.
“And he said, ‘We’ll go really good’. He never says that, in all my time with Wayne and I thought did he really say that?
“And I said, ‘Why’s that’? And he said, ‘Well, what are you thinking?’ I said, ‘Well, they haven’t really played’ (a strong opposition), and he goes, ‘I think we’ll get them’.
“And to me that’s Wayne having confidence in what they’ve got.
“Wayne normally just throws a question back on you and says, ‘What do you think?’ And walks away.
“And you saw his body language (in the post-match press conference), he had this swagger and walked in like Clint Eastwood and walked out like Clint Eastwood.
“He had that swagger about him, so he knows that he’s got the Roosters’ measure at the moment.”
Bennett had every reason to be confident after watching his side’s 60-8 thumping of the Roosters the last time the two clubs met in September.
It was more of the same on Friday night as the Bunnies raced out to a 24-0 lead after 45 minutes on Friday night before conceding three tries, including two in the final eight minutes.
Bennett went out of his way to play down the victory at his post-match press conference with a series of one-line answers when given the chance to praise his players.
You must have liked what you saw out of the Cody Walker-Latrell Mitchell left-side combination, Wayne?
“Yeah, we’re only three weeks into the season so we’ve got a fair way to go yet,” he quipped.
But Wayne, they really seemed to click tonight?
“Well, it’s starting to, it’s not there yet.”
And you must have been pleased with Latrell, Wayne?
“Yeah, he was good. Yeah, he was doing his job.”
Tallis wasn’t buying it and revealed what Bennett would really be thinking after the impressive performance.
“He’s doing backflips on the inside, absolutely,” Tallis said.
“His body language, he loved it. I know him that well that he is so proud of his boys.
“And what he’ll do is he’ll address them, he’ll talk them up, but in the media there’ll be a lid on it now.”
