Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett has stepped in to defend former pupil turned pugilist Anthony Mundine, who is again in the headlines for the wrong reasons after saying New South Wales was a racist rugby league state.
During the launch of his world title defence on the Gold Coast yesterday, where he announced a June 27 fight against Argentine Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas, Mundine said young Aboriginal players should move to Queensland to get a fair crack at representative football.
His comments come on the back of in-form Souths winger Nathan Merritt shocking the NRL by claiming he wasn't picked for the City team because he was aboriginal.
While Mundine's slur has caused a stir in the tabloids, he found an ally in Bennett, who said the WBA super middleweight champ was a "smart operator" simply trying to drum up some press for his title bout.
"Anthony's just trying to get people to his boxing. He's great at the hype part of it and he knows what he's doing. I think he's a pretty smart operator actually," Bennett said.
"He's not talking about getting opportunities. He's not talking about not playing rugby league. I didn't read those comments."