We have nothing to lose: Green
NORTH Queensland coach Paul Green has finally accepted the underdogs tag as his unfancied Cowboys bid to pull off one of the great grand final upsets in Sunday’s NRL season decider in Sydney.
Green has decided if you can’t beat ‘ em, join ‘ em in embracing the Cowboys’ role as grand final outsiders against Melbourne’s star- studded minor premiers.
“I’m not going to waste my energy to try to convince you guys otherwise. People have made up their minds and rightly so too,” Green said in his final press call before the title decider at ANZ Stadium.
“Bookmakers will tell you we are. I’ll take it. It’s a fact. Melbourne have been the most consistent team all year and they’ve been the best team all year. So they deserve to be favourites.”
Green’s position has changed since earlier in the week, when he denied playing the underdog card after the Cowboys’ succession of sudden- death wins over 2016 premiers Cronulla, fourthplaced Parramatta and then the second- placed Sydney Roosters in the preliminary final.
“Being the underdog or not being the underdog, it doesn’t really worry us,” said the 2015 premiership- winning mentor.
While in- form playmaker Michael Morgan insists the Cowboys’ inspired finals run has been anything but a fairytale, citing hard work as the key, Green readily accepts his side has earned a “free shot”.
“We’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.
“We haven’t been expected to go this far. So, from that point of view, we’re just enjoying it for what it is, stepping up to the plate and having a swing.” THEY say first impressions last and Paul Green reckons he didn’t make the greatest on Craig Bellamy.
It was midway through 2000 when Green lobbed at the Brisbane Broncos after being sacked by North Queensland.
Green, the 1995 Rothmans Medal winner, was looking to relaunch his NRL career under Wayne Bennett at the Broncos.
By Bennett’s side was Bellamy, an up- and- coming conditioning trainer and assistant with aspirations to be a head coach.
“I was actually at the Broncos when Craig was assistant coach to Wayne,” Green said.
“He was what you see now. He was very good at his job, hardworking and smart. He was the conditioning coach but that was before coaches had a couple of assistants.
“While he was doing the conditioning he was also helping Wayne a fair bit on the footy side of things. It wasn’t my best year. I was a long way off my best. His memories of me as a player probably wouldn’t be that great.”
Green didn’t play a game for the Broncos that year, featuring for the Toowoomba Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup before an ankle injury cut his season short.
He moved on to the Roosters in 2001 before eventually returning to Brisbane for a final NRL season in 2004.
Bellamy had left the Broncos to become head coach of the Melbourne Storm in 2003 and Green never got the chance to make a second impression.
Seventeen years on, Bellamy and Green will go head- to- head at ANZ Stadium tomorrow with the ultimate prize on the line – the Provan- Summons trophy.
Green, 45, has joined Bellamy, 57, as one of the NRL’s elite coaches after taking the reins at North Queensland in 2014.
The Cowboys mentor could become just the fourth coach in the game’s history to win two grand finals in their first four seasons after North Queensland claimed the club’s first title in 2015, his second year in charge.
Green has won 67 of his 108 games ( 62 per cent) in charge of the Cowboys. Bellamy has a 68 per cent ( 268 wins from 394 games) winning record at the helm of Melbourne.
Ironically, Green has his equal worst coaching record against Bellamy, win- ning just three of the nine matches they have faced off in. But Bellamy, preparing for his seventh grand final as Storm coach, has been impressed with what Green has achieved at the Cowboys.
“He has done a great job,” Bellamy said. “They are playing for each other and playing a style of footy where they don’t just go away.
“The travel adds to the significance of what the Cowboys have achieved. It’s been quite remarkable even if you take the travel out of it.
“To finish where they did ( eighth) and have the three weeks that they’ve had and having three wins against top quality sides, it’s pretty remarkable.
“The travel makes it hard but it seems the Cowboys have thrived on it and done a good job.”
Maybe first impressions don’t after all. last