Dolphins star Mark Nicholls insists Wayne Bennett’s favourite bits of advice to his players is a LIE

Dolphins star Mark Nicholls has dispelled Wayne Bennett’s claims he deliberately ignores the media coverage of the sport as a complete myth. 

For over a decade now, the veteran coach has maintained he studiously avoids newspaper articles and TV news covering the code and has urged his players to do likewise.

But Nicholls, who played under the 73-year-old at South Sydney and joined him at the Dolphins this season, revealed Bennett rarely followed his own advice,

‘One of my favourite things at Souths, Wayne would always tell us that he wouldn’t read the paper or listen to the media,’ he told Triple M Breakfast on Tuesday. 

‘Someone got a photo of him down at the local fish and chip shop reading the paper, one of the boys put it up at the team meeting and the boys absolutely loved it.

Wayne Bennett has repeatedly claimed he ignores any kind of coverage of the NRL

But Dolphins prop Mark Nicholls has revealed Bennett’s approach may not be as cut and dry as it seems, with the supercoach keeping close tabs on newspapers and TV reports

‘So if he tells you that he doesn’t listen to the media or read the paper, he’s lying.’

Bennett has famously been dismissive of the media, insisting he deliberately avoided their NRL coverage.

‘I don’t read anything you [the media] write any more,’ he said back in 2016.

‘I haven’t for over a decade now. I watch television shows but when some rugby league comes on I turn it off.’

Bennett doubled down on his approach two years later when he told Payne Haas to ‘make sure he doesn’t read what you guys [the media] write’ after the prop burst onto the scene for the Broncos.

The seven-time premiership winner may not heed his own advice when it comes to ignoring the media, but he appears to have lost none of his magic on the field.

Tipped for the wooden spoon at the start of the season, the Dolphins have joined the Broncos and Storm as the only expansion team in NRL history to begin their inaugural campaign with three straight wins.

But the Dolphins’ hopes of maintaining their perfect start to the season were dealt a major blow on Tuesday, when the NRL judiciary banned Felise Kaufusi for four matches.

The former Storm enforcer was sin-binned and put on report during the Dolphins win against Newcastle in Round 3 for a late hit on Jackson Hastings.

Bennett has famously made a point of telling his players to avoid media coverage

Had the Queenslander took the early plea, he would have missed only three games, but he will now have to sit out the blockbuster top-of-the-table clash against the Broncos on Friday night as well as games against St George Illawarra, North Queensland and South Sydney.

‘Not at all,’ Kaufusi said when asked if his reputation had influenced the panel’s verdict.

‘It’ll take some time for this to sink in, I’m pretty disappointed with the verdict.

‘I thought we had good grounds to fight the downgrade, but I guess the panel didn’t see it that way.’