Paul Green deserves a chance to coach the Brisbane Broncos — the problem is Kevin Walters deserves it more, writes Robert Craddock

PAUL Green deserves a chance to coach the Brisbane Broncos — the problem is Kevin Walters deserves it more, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Kevin Walters has done enough to have a crack. (Sarah Reed)

PAUL Green deserves a chance to coach the Broncos — the problem is Kevin Walters deserves it more.

You can’t blame the Broncos for courting the outstanding Green after the magic he has worked with the Cowboys but surely Walters deserves to be the pea to take over from Wayne Bennett in two years time.

The Walters-Green derby is a tight race involving a fascinating rivalry with several tightly wound threads.

Kevin Walters has done enough to have a crack. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

Walters only became State of Origin coach two years ago when Green rejected the job.

And, two years before that, Green beat Walters for the Cowboys job because the Cowboys board wanted more from Walters when he was interviewed as one of the last four applicants.

But here’s the thing. Some people are not made for interviews and Walters is one of them.

Walters is no super salesman who will dazzle you with his flashy spread sheets of what your list will look like in 2022 or tell you what a wonderful job your front office is doing just to make you feel like your have recruited the right people.

As he said last winter “mate I’m from Ipswich, we don’t have smoke and mirrors up there.’’

But show him a tape of a player or a game and he’ll give you as good a 50-word summation as you will get from anyone.

The dressing room, not the board room is where he feels most comfortable. Players relate to his humble, unvarnished sincerity. Interview panels don’t.

But for all of his credentials as a five-time premiership winner and two time State of Origin series winning coach, the Broncos have never been completely sold on making Walters their first grade coach.

To do so there are two things they would need to accept.

The first is that others will sound more impressive in the interview than he will.

The second is that the 52-year-old Kevvie — the age he would be when he got the job — is not the 32-year-old Kevvie they remember from his playing days.

Walters is no longer the larrikin, wise-crackin’ funster he has been typecast. People change. They grow up. He has.

Walters would make for a seamless transition for Brisbane. (Liam Kidston)

The fun is still there and he is one of the first to crack and angular grin or a quick line when the conversation lightens.

But though he is an emotional man who would shed a tear backing over a cane toad in the driveway, he has a harder shell than he once did.

That he volunteered to ring every player dropped in last season’s Origin series tells of his determination to confront challenges head on.

And while he choked up in the press conference before Origin I last year talking about Billy Slater’s omission, when it really matters — during games — his emotions are less volatile because he feels so comfortable in his natural habitat.

When everyone else was starting to panic with Queensland down 16-6 at halftime in the second Origin game last season Walters calmly told the players at halftime he loved the way they were playing and the game was about to turn which it did.

There is no bad choice between Green and Walters (or Craig Bellamy) but after Walters devoted the last two decades of his life’s journey towards becoming coach of the club he helped make great there’s something not right if never gets a chance.

Originally published as Paul Green deserves a chance to coach the Brisbane Broncos — the problem is Kevin Walters deserves it more, writes Robert Craddock