The Knights signed him on a four year contract just weeks after they agreed to sell the team to mining magnate Nathan Tinkler. Supporters of the privatisation say Bennett's signing vindicates the move to privatise the club.
Timothy McDonald reports.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Since winning their last premiership in 2001, the Knights have had their ups and downs, both on the field and off. At their worst, they've come dead last in the competition and they've faced serious financial difficulties as well.
Now they have a cashed-up new owner in mining magnate Nathan Tinkler, who has just signed the competition's most successful coach, Wayne Bennett. Even the man who stands to lose the most, the current coach Rick Stone, says Tinkler must be pleased.
RICK STONE: I think he's pretty excited, you know, and so he should be. You know, it's a big coup luring Wayne Bennett to Newcastle. I think if we look back even two or three years ago, trying to get Wayne Bennett to Newcastle to coach would have been you know a fair way away.
Himself and his clout and obviously his passion and drive for the team and the region have definitely helped bring that to fruition and good luck to him, mate. He's got his man and hopefully things can settle down. We can get back playing footy. He can coach Saints and then at the end of the year come across and hopefully do plenty of good stuff for our club.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Steve Crowe was part of the Knights' 1997 premiership winning side. He says a coach with such strong credentials will help the team keep its best players and lure new talent as well.
STEVE CROWE: There's an X-factor about certain characters and Wayne certainly has that. I think it is that he has a bit of magic about him. He's had success obviously. At the Broncos he won half a dozen premierships. He's backed it up again at a second club, St George.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Only a few weeks ago, Nathan Tinkler's plan to buy the Knights looked like it might fall through. Now supporters of the plan say that signing the best coach in the game vindicates the decision to privatise the team.
Michael Hagan was the team's coach in 2001, when the Knights won their last premiership.
MICHAEL HAGAN: To have the signature now of the game's best coach in the space of two weeks is a remarkable achievement and I guess says a bit about what the Nathan Tinkler sports group can deliver.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Do you think that without someone like Nathan Tinkler coming on board that this would have ever happened?
MICHAEL HAGAN: No, I think even in the last two or three weeks before the Tinkler sports group came along, you wouldn't have even had the opportunity to go and talk to a person like Wayne Bennett because you wouldn't have been in the ballpark.
So the fact that they had the opportunity to talk him in the first place and then to be successful in persuading him to come to Newcastle when he probably had some very firm offers to consider elsewhere says a fair bit about the influence that Nathan Tinkler has and I guess how serious he is about trying to get the Knights back as a premier force in the NRL.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Michael Hagan says traditional streams of revenue for NRL teams aren't as strong as they once were and so many teams have looked elsewhere for at other options.
MICHAEL HAGAN: South Sydney have adopted privatisation model with Russell Crowe. Max Delmege has had a large share of interest in the Manly Sea Eagles and they achieved quite a bit in 2008 as a direct result of that.
So I think it's certainly more common and I guess it's no secret that licensed clubs are under pressure with poker machine taxes and smoking laws that have really eaten into their turnover and profits. So you know this type of privatised model is certainly, I think, going to be more common than not as the benefits or the investment you can make away from just player salaries is certainly the real advantage.
TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Wayne Bennett will take up the reins in Newcastle in November. Until then he'll coach St George Illawarra, another underperforming team he helped to revive.
MARK COLVIN: Timothy McDonald.
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