I've said this so many times it's getting tiring. The bloke threw one famous pass in 2005 and somehow that became his entire legacy.
I'll give him credit for the Golden Boot years in 2010 or 2011, but outside of 2005, 2010 and 2011, his career was pretty average once he no longer had a quality half beside him. Scott Prince and Robert Lui gave him structure. Without that, he was rocks and diamonds every damn week.
One minute he'd kick it out on the full, the next he'd accidentally side foot a kick that landed perfectly for a try. There was no consistency. He had unbelievable natural talent, but he also had an enormous amount of luck, and I think people remember the highlights while forgetting just how ordinary many of his performances actually were. At no point were you ever confident Benji would take control of the game and win it like a Cam Smith or a JT or a Freddy or a Joey and on and on with all the great winners and game managers.
As a coach he's been living off his playing reputation. Strip away the nostalgia and judge him on results. The Tigers have been undisciplined, mentally fragile and tactically clueless for long stretches under his watch. At some point, excuses run out. Good blokes don't automatically make good coaches, and right now he's coaching on reputation, not performance.
His coaching has been all hype and very little substance. Week after week the Tigers look underprepared, make the same mistakes, fall apart under pressure and show little sign of learning. If any other coach delivered these performances, they'd be under enormous pressure. Benji seems to get a pass because he's Benji.
The best thing Benji has coached is his own reputation.
