Competitive player and intense coach one of sport’s characters
SYDNEY: It says a lot about Paul Green as an NRL coach that Paul Green the player was often overlooked.
As competitive as he was clever, Green was the consistently reliable general of the starstudded Cronulla side of the 1990s.
To this day the skilful organiser remains the only player in history to have won bestandfairest awards in both Brisbane and Sydney, doing so in 1993 and 1995.
It also earned him a debut for Queensland and Australia in the 1997 Super League series, before playing seven more matches for the Maroons between 1999 and 2001.
Injuries ultimately stood in his way as he was ruled out of the Sydney Roosters’ 2002 premiershipwinning year early before stints at Parramatta and Brisbane left him with 162 firstgrade games.
But Green’s brains were made for the coach’s box, earning his first head gig at North Queensland in 2014.
And in Johnathan Thurston he found his ultimate magician, helping take the Cowboys from nearthings to NRL heavyweights in his first two seasons.
Thurston’s goldenpoint field goal in the 2015 decider remains the greatest moment in the
North Queensland region’s history, with Green banging on the coach’s window in a mix of elation and disbelief.
It is footage that will no doubt be replayed dozens of times in the coming days, after Green died in his home at age 49 on August 11.
When Thurston was asked about the pressure of leading the Cowboys to their maiden title in 2015, he answered there was none.
The structure he set up was simple — every person had a single job to do to ensure the trophy was lifted.
‘‘That’s what Greeny has instilled into the group, knowing your role and doing it to the best of your ability,’’ Thurston said in the minutes after his field goal.
‘‘Do I feel pressure going into games? No, because I know everyone around me is best prepared.’’
Perhaps even finer than Green’s effort in 2015 was the one two years later.
Without Thurston and cocaptain Matt Scott, Green led a bitsandpieces Cowboys side through to the 2017 decider from eighth on the ladder.
Along the way they upset three of Green’s former clubs in Cronulla, Parramatta and the Roosters before going down to one of the greatest Melbourne sides.
Included in that side was a young Jason Taumalolo making his mark, while several of the
Cowboys’ other current stars have come through a junior system set up by Green.
Green was known for being hard on his players and one of rugby league’s most intense coaches.
But away from the field he was also one of the sport’s great characters.
In 2014 he famously claimed he would walk nude through Pitt Street if a Manly try scored against the Cowboys on the Central Coast was not an obstruction.
It was that mix that helped him become the Cowboys’ most capped coach in history, before eventually leaving the club in 2020.
‘‘Obviously I mentioned the successes we have had, the titles we have won as the highlights,’’ Green said at the time of his exit.
‘‘But footy is more than just about the wins and losses.
‘‘It’s about the opportunity to help young men be not only better players but better men.
‘‘Some of the guys I have seen them come in as kids and started my coaching relationship with them when they were kids.
‘‘I have seen them grow to become fathers, husbands.
‘‘That is the most rewarding part of being a coach, being able to influence people in a positive way.’’
Green had insisted in that same press conference his headcoaching career was not over and that another opportunity would come.
Months later he took over as Queensland’s coach for one season, before leaving that role to keep the door ajar for a fulltime return to the NRL.
For the past year it seemed certain Green’s time would come again.
He was linked to the Wests Tigers at the end of last season and his name was mentioned in the coaching merrygoround earlier this year.
If nothing else, Green was likely to link up with Wayne Bennett as his assistant at the Dolphins next year as part of an allstar coaching cast.
That comeback will now never come with Green gone too soon. — AAP