Craig Hamilton from 1233 Saturday Breakfast spoke to the veteran campaigner in the locker room after the Knights' emphatic win over the Bulldogs on Sunday. (listen to attached audio)
When Craig asked the coach what, aside from the 22-6 result, was the most satisfying part of the game, the response was classic Bennett.
"The result."
Bennett appreciates that the team played for the whole 80 minutes, "that they stayed at it all game" as he puts it.
"We defended everything that we had to defend," he says.
"At this time of the year if you don't do that, you're no chance of beating anybody.
"We started to nail it a couple of weeks ago, and it's getting better.
"Yeah, they're kinda gettin' the idea now, it's just about being patient."
The Knights will be up against some daunting statistics when they travel to Melbourne to play the Storm on Saturday.
The sudden-death semi against the defending premiers will be played at a ground where the Newcastle team have never won, after being beaten by the Storm in their last seven clashes.
Bennett concedes "the Storm is a team that's great at putting pressure on".
"We'll have to stand up to that and if we don't stand up to that, well they'll beat us," he says.
"There's a good vibe about these blokes, they're happy, they're playing for each other.
"If we turn up and play like we have here today, we're gonna give ourselves a real good chance."
That's about as close to a ringing endorsement as you're ever likely to get from Wayne Bennett.
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