Wayne Bennett’s absence from the Dragons’ 15-year anniversary celebrations of the 2010 premiership has been explained with the veteran coach revealing he was actually never invited.
It was reported earlier this week that only five members of the premiership squad turned up to the celebrations, which were held at the Round 19 clash with the Roosters at Jubilee Stadium last Saturday.
And now the reason why has become a lot clearer with Bennett telling Code Sports he and others were never informed of the plans.
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‘Don’t need to add any more smoke’ | 03:05
“I never got an invitation,” Bennett told Code Sports.
“It’s not that we didn’t turn up because we didn’t want to be there. We didn’t know it was on a lot of us. Other guys were in the same boat.
“No one seems to know where it came from, how it happened. Still no-one has talked to me. Three years ago we all went to the races here in Sydney.
“We came from all over Australia to be there.”
It’s a seriously poor oversight by the club to not invite all of the players from the 2010 squad, let alone the coach who guided them to the premiership.
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Only Dean Young, Ben Creagh, Jason Nightingale, Michael Weyman and Dan Hunt — who did not play in the Grand Final — turned up to the game.
The five were presented to the crowd, along with the 2010 trophy, on what was the Dragons’ old boys day.
However, it’s worth noting that four of the five are still working closely with the club. Young is an NRL assistant coach, Creagh is on the board, Nightingale Weyman is the ground announcer for home games and Nightingale is one of the Dragons’ ambassadors.
Brett Morris, who played 169 NRL games for the Dragons, was at the game, but as a Roosters’ assistant coach so he chose not to be presented on field.
Several players from the team are based in Queensland, while Ben Hornby — who is now a Rabbitohs assistant coach — had pre-booked plans while the Bunnies enjoyed a bye.
