Wendell Sailor, Dragons Wendell Sailor, Dragons. Image: Getty Images

Have you been hammering that message into the Saints boys?

I don’t have to because that’s not the way we think about it. These guys have been there before. We don’t delve into it. I know the week-by-week thing’s a cliche, but we’ve really bought into that this year. Wayne’s big thing this year was: “I don’t care what you do, guys, but I want you to play for 80 minutes. You might not be known for it, but that’s what I want from you.”

What does Wayne Bennett do better than any other coach?

Look, he’s more than a football coach. What he does is he taps into your mentality as a person, what makes you tick, then he brings that into a team ethos. So you’ve got someone like me who’s hard to control because I love the cameras, very egotistical – but at the same time I love winning, there’s nothing I won’t do to win a game within the rules. And then there’s someone like Darren Lockyer or Ben Hornby who are very introverted, very good at what they do, but very quiet. And Wayne gets you all on the same page, singing from the same sheet.

What about his football knowledge?

He’s the best coach I’ve worked with because you know what he’s doing is going to work. All the premierships he’s won, all the Origin series he’s won – you know he’s on the money. You can’t help but be enthralled when he talks; you buy into what he says because you know it’s going to work long term. Look at New Zealand last year: everyone said, ‘So what if they’ve got Wayne Bennett.’ But he had those guys pumped, he had them ready to beat Australia and they did the job.