The Mole: Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett's Dragons blunder

Wayne Bennett is the master coach - but he has to take ownership  of the Broncos’ disastrous start to the season against the Dragons last night.

The Broncos clearly didn’t turn up ready to play - and were thumped 34-12 by a Dragons team that has had trouble scoring points in recent years.

The Matt Lodge issue was a major distraction - and the young prop had a shocker.

The mental toll and media scrutiny all week proved too much for him - but, Bennett being Bennett, he wanted to prove a point and played the young prop.

Lodge was booed by the crowd every time he touched the ball and threw a dreadful intercept to Dragons half Ben Hunt in a key moment of the game.

Bennett’s other blunder was to start the game without a specialist dummy half, moving Andrew McCullough to the bench.

McCullough is coming back from a major injury but if he was fit enough to be in the 17 man squad, he was fit enough to start.

Big second-rower Sam Thaiday was handed the key dummy half role and, without the finesse of an experienced hooker to guide them, the Broncos were sloppy and hesitant with the ball.

Brisbane now have just a few training sessions to get things right before next week’s massive game against the Cowboys - otherwise they are looking at a disastrous 0-2 start to the new season.