From the moment Craig Bellamy made the decision to spurn Brisbane's approaches and remain in Melbourne, Anthony Seibold was the man the Broncos envisaged taking over at Red Hill.
That's not to say Seibold was some sort of consolation prize. Aside from Wayne Bennett, Bellamy stands alone as the other genuine super coach in rugby league. That's the kind of towering figure Broncos powerbrokers imagined when they saw the future beyond Bennett.
Seibold is hardly there yet. He's overseen precisely 27 games as a head coach and won nothing but admiration for the way he's gone about things in his rookie season. Bennett has 809 games in the books and won seven grand finals. But in the 44-year-old from Rockhampton, Brisbane believe they have found a coach who can thrive in the big shadow Bennett will cast long after he departs.
New colours: Wayne Bennett coaching England … he’s about to be the new coach of South Sydney.Credit:PA
As someone close to the club pointed out, when the Broncos began in 1988, they didn't recruit an established gun to set them on their way, they found the most promising young Queensland coach. To them, Seibold's looming appointment has an element of history and renewal.
This was, in many regards, the most important recruiting mission in the club's history, outside getting Bennett in the first place. Neither Ivan Henjak nor Anthony Griffin were able to shape the club and its unique culture to their liking.
Kevin Walters, the supremely likeable Maroons coach, was again on the end of a phone call to tell him the Broncos job, which he so covets, would go to someone else. Walters has an endless amount of friends at the club, from current to former players and officials, but such decisions can't be made on sentiment.
Seibold made the most sense by far, even with his limited experience. He's been a complete professional in his first season, losing his cool publicly only once, ironically in relation to the coaching rumours linking him to the Broncos. With so many sponsors, corporates, fans and media to appease in the Queensland capital, Seibold, a former Brisbane reserve-grader, was judged to be made of the right stuff.
From a football point of view, even when you consider he leaves behind a team of Burgesses and Greg Inglis at Redfern, the allure of the Broncos is obvious. They have a squad bursting to take the next step and virtually all of their young stars have already been signed. Many have them pegged as a contender in coming seasons, so Seibold must understand the expectation that will surround him from day one.
Thursday was an astonishing day for the NRL, when the coaching roulette wheel that had been whirring for months finally began to reveal some numbers and colours. Seibold was the first domino to tumble, in turn pushing out Bennett, a move slated to happen in 2020, but is far more likely to happen much sooner.
What Bennett does at South Sydney will be as intriguing as what Seibold can do in Brisbane. Bennett coached the Dragons to a premiership in 2010 when he left the Broncos, but this will be the first time he has coached in the heart of Sydney. Sin City reporters confident they can cut him down a peg or two are certain to be disappointed.
With Seibold and Bennett trading places, Michael Maguire will be confirmed to take over at the Tigers, marking his return to the NRL coaching ranks for the first time since he left Souths. His success with New Zealand would suggest he has lost little and he will give them some steel if nothing else.
And that all means the father-son reunion at Penrith can take place at long last, Cleary joining son Nathan, and the coaching merry-go-round appears to finally be coming to a stop. For now.
Des Hasler's appointment at Manly means there will be five teams with new coaches next season, should it all happen in time.
Apparently the draw came out on Thursday as well.
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