DID you hear the one about the veteran Broncos player who lost his pants?

Nothing sinister about it. They just somehow went missing during the off-season.

But what happened next was more significant.

After having them replaced by the club the player was billed $40.

THINKING BIG: BENNY’S MASTER PROJECT

And if he loses the new ones he will be paying another $40 for the next pair.

You don’t win a premiership by charging players for lost pants but you can set a culture that will help you get there.

Returning coach Wayne Bennett has put a razor through some of the club’s off-field spending and is pushing in all sorts of novel ways to make players aware of what the club has given them.

This is where the 2015 model Bennett is a slightly different beast to the man who left six years ago.

During his previous two decade reign as Broncos coach, Bennett knew the club was looking after its players well but it took six years away for him to fully realise just how well they are actually catered for.

media_camera The Broncos are being taught not to take anything for granted. Picture: Darren England

“Players get so much and I am happy for them to get it,” Bennett said.

“But I don’t want them abusing the system. If you can justify to the staff why you need a replacement for something that was given to you for nothing then that’s fine but if you can’t then you have to pay what we have to pay for it.

“You have to understand that I have been to two other clubs (Dragons and Newcastle) in the last six years. The Broncos get so much more than what the other clubs get in so many things and I don’t have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is people abusing the system.

“I won’t tolerate it. It does not create teamwork or harmony within the organisation.

DRIVEN HUNT TAKING NOTHING FOR GRANTED

“I remember going back all those years at the Broncos and we were lean and mean. I remember (the late foundation part-owner) Paul Morgan used to say to me ‘we do too much for them Wayne.’

“I said ‘we don’t do too much for them’ but I never want it to get to the stage where they don’t appreciate it.’’

Bennett noted a story published last year about the All Blacks custom of having senior players such as Richie McCaw sweep the dressingroom floor after a Test match as a way of ensuring the team stayed anchored and balanced after a win and reinforcing that even the game’s superstars should commit above life’s most menial tasks.

“I have read that story — it’s those simple values that still work,” Bennett said.

“People think teamwork involves a very complex set of things that have to happen. Actually it’s a lot of simple things and when you don’t pay attention to them you don’t get the team you want.”

The freebie culture runs rampant in sport and often its not the players fault that they get showered with so much.

I once had a game of golf with a former Test cricketer in the West Indies who spent the first four or five holes in a cranky mood.

media_camera Wayne Bennett has learnt some valuable lessons in his time away from the Broncos. Picture: Peter Wallis

When I asked what the problem was he said “I still can’t believe we had to pay for this ... it’s the first round of golf I’ve paid for in 20 years.”

Welcome to planet earth where most of us are forced to live.

Managing a modern football team is not easy because on one hand clubs feel obliged to stay in touch with big-spending rivals in the modern arms race which features the best gymnasiums, medical rooms and testing centres.

The Broncos are in the process of getting approval for a $27 million upgrade which would expand their Red Hill base and keep them in touch with many Australian football clubs doing the same.

The challenge for them, as Bennett said, is to recreate that “lean and mean” vibe which the club’s pioneers like Allan Langer never lost.

When Titans foundation coach John Cartwright resigned last year he mentioned at his farewell press conference about the spirit that gelled in the place when they made the top four two years in a row in 2009-10.

The facilities the club had when it started out were nothing special but they made the players feel as if they were battlers taking on the world, that nothing could be left for granted, that they had to scramble and scratch and scrape for everything they had.

It was a great bonding agent and once the club progressed to a more affluent base the us against the world vibe was lost and the club has never been the same since.

That’s why Bennett’s hard line on team gear is worth a try.

Even if it fails at least it shows who is wearing the pants.