Henjak plays Mr Cool ahead of St George
If Ivan Henjak is nervous about facing his former boss and Queensland coach of the century Wayne Bennett he's disguising it better than a Darren Lockyer cut out pass.
With so much being made of Bennett's return to Suncorp Stadium with St George Illawarra on Friday night, Henjak could have been excused for being jumpy when quizzed about his showdown with the man he replaced.
It's hard to know which man is under more pressure - Bennett who returns to Brisbane as the enemy with a team that has won its last seven games against the Broncos - or Henjak, who despite opening his coaching career in style with three straight wins, remains under the spectre of one of the game's great coaches.
"I don't think me and Wayne (are) running out on the paddock ... we're not going to be tackling each other," said Henjak in a bid to downplay the significance the two men will have on the outcome of Friday's clash.
"Really, the part we're going to play is going to be pretty insignificant I think.
"The players are the ones who are going to decide who wins and loses this game."
Henjak has filled various roles at the Broncos, including reserve grade coach, for 14 years.
It's given him a pretty good understanding of how Bennett thinks.
If Bennett was talking to the media, he'd probably say with a straight face: "it's just another game".
Henjak trotted out the same cliche on Tuesday.
He was asked if he thought Bennett would have been working his players up for this game since the start of the season or whether he'd play his trump card during the week.
"Knowing Wayne, I wouldn't think he'd talked to his players or mentioned anything about this game until the one with Cronulla had finished," said Henjak.
"Maybe in his mind he may have been having some ideas about how he was going to handle it.
"You just can't look too far ahead and you don't sacrifice one game to win another.
"I think you're playing with fire when you do that.
"I don't know what he's thinking, he's pretty cagey."
Henjak however didn't shy away from questions after naming returning prop Nick Kenny (hamstring) and centre Justin Hodges (suspension) in his squad to play the Dragons on Tuesday.
"Sure, I can under understand the hype with it," he said.
"But what we can't get involved in is the emotion that's involved with it.
"If we get involved in that it affects our performance. We still have to prepare the same, that's the paramount thing for us.
"We can't take it as being more important than last week, because it's not, it's two points."
"We're not going to get an extra two points if we beat a Wayne Bennett-coached team."
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