Dare Greatly: Leadership Lessons from Wayne Bennett’s Bold Call

A note to young leaders.

If you dare, dare greatly.

State of Origin, 2001. The series is tied 1–1.

Queensland is reeling from the loss of its captain, Gorden Tallis, to a serious neck injury. A red-hot, star-studded NSW looks ready to steamroll a young and shaken Maroons side.

Wayne Bennett rolls the dice. He picks up the phone and calls Allan “Alfie” Langer – the legendary Queensland halfback, who by now is semi-retired and playing club rugby league in England.

The plan is audacious: secretly fly Alfie home and drop him into the Origin decider with barely a training session. A colossal risk – he’s four weeks shy of 35 and hasn’t played Origin in 1,107 days.

But when Alfie steps onto Lang Park, the stadium erupts. The gamble pays off spectacularly. Queensland crushes NSW 40–14. Langer scores a try, sets up two others, and cements his place in Origin folklore.

Bennett had outfoxed the Blues. True to form, he played it down: “It was just one of those crazy ideas – crazy enough to work.”

But where others may have dithered, Bennett dared.

Daring doesn’t come from believing you’ll always be right – it comes from not fearing that you will sometimes be wrong.