The Wolf You Feed

Wayne Bennett is the greatest rugby league coach Australia has ever had. He has won seven premierships and is the greatest man manager the game has known.He is a living contradiction – a self-professed introvert who can hold an audience in the palm of his hand, an autocrat on a humanitarian mission to make good men of his young charges, a devoted husband (and father of the year) who left his wife after 42 years of marriage. Other coaches decry his tactics then attempt to imitate them. Players are desperate to work with him but are left feeling deceived when he cuts them loose. The media disparages him then lavishes him with praise.So who is the real Wayne Bennett? Celebrated sports journalist Andrew Webster has been on a mission to find out. For two years, he has interviewed family, close friends, sworn enemies, colleagues, coaches and players, as well as Bennett himself, and trawled through acres of print and recordings.Webster shows us a complex, brilliant and difficult man. We come to admire the good wolf of Bennett's nature – the genius who transforms young unformed players into titans of the game. And the bad wolf – the wrangler who plays the dark arts of football politics with obsessive determination.

'the greatest coach in Australian sports history... an extraordinary man' -- Matthew Johns, Australian rugby league media personality, commentator and former professional player

Andrew Webster is chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. He has authored several books, ghost-written some others and covered Olympics and World Cups all over the planet. Andrew appears regularly on TV and radio. Matt Norman is the nephew of Peter Norman and the writer/ director/ producer of the acclaimed 2008 documentary Salute about his uncle. He is currently writing Peter's story for a Hollywood film. James Lugton is a seasoned theatre performer, having performed in plays including Richard III, Hamlet, Othello and Julius Caesar for Bell Shakespeare, The Odd Couple and Diplomacy for Ensemble Theatre, and many productions for acclaimed independent company Sport For Jove, including The Taming of the Shrew for which he won a Sydney Theatre Award for 'Best Actor in an Independent Production'.

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