VETERAN NRL boss Wayne Bennett has given Sam Burgess a warning after the latter took up a two-year deal with the Warrington Wolves to become head coach.
Burgess, who left South Sydney Rabbitohs as an assistant coach towards the back end of the 2023 NRL season after a fallout with head coach Jason Demetriou, will take up the reins with Warrington next month.
Now Bennett, who coached Burgess in 2019 at the Rabbitohs, has issued the Englishman a warning.
“He is as brave a player as I ever coached,” Bennett told the Daily Telegraph.
“He is as courageous as I ever coached. And he is as good a leader as I’ve ever coached. He ticks every box. And he doesn’t want to lose his passion.
“But he has also just got to sometimes pull it back a little bit so it doesn’t crowd what he is trying to achieve. I think Warrington are very fortunate to have him.
“As long as he is patient and understands that everybody hasn’t got his commitment, and everybody hasn’t got his willpower, and everybody hasn’t got his character.
“He has got to work with a lot of guys who don’t have all those things. But you can get them there and you can help them get there as well.”
That being said, Bennett knows first hand what Burgess is capable of after seeing the latter in action in his only head coaching role of his career so far, taking the Orara Valley Axemen all the way to the Grand Final in local rugby league.
“I absolutely admired what he did,” Bennett said.
“He took a club that had been out of the comp for some years and he got all the local people engaged because of his passion. And he got them to the grand final.
“I went to about three games down there. I went to the grand final and he didn’t know I was coming. And these guys were just bush footballers playing their hearts out for him.
“They loved him. That is the passion he brings.”
