Bennett has virtually “co-existed” with news outlets such as the Courier Mail while at the helm at Red Hill, but legend Gordon Tallis, who won three premierships with the mentor, believes the tide has turned in the one-team town with local media starting to apply the blow torch.

Matthew Johns, who is in Brisbane today for the Queensland launch of Fox’s rugby league channel, said he was surprised to pick up Brisbane's only metropolitan newspaper and see negative press regarding Bennett's loosening grip of the town he was once the unofficial mayor of after delivering six premierships.      

“It has surprised me the amount of criticism from Broncos legends, but even the Courier Mail, who have always co-existed with Wayne – I’ve never seen the pressure like this,” Johns said to Tallis on Triple M’s Grill Team.

Tallis attributed the loss of Bennett’s pull with Brisbane media to a change in personnel as whispers of his need to deliver a dynamite season or face the axe gain momentum. 

“He’s always had those guys and has always been able to call on one guy in the media, but I think he’s outlasted everybody,” Tallis said.

“To be 67 and to keep on going and reinventing himself, you end up losing friends.

“All those guys that Wayne’s called on that can do that, they’re not there anymore.

“…Everybody respects their grandfather, but every now and then they stop listening to him.”