Wayne Bennett and Paul Green eyed as next Maroons coach if Kevin Walters joins Titans

WAYNE Bennett and Paul Green would be the alternatives as Queensland State of Origin coach next year if Kevin Walters takes the Titans job.

WAYNE Bennett and Paul Green would be the alternatives as Queensland State of Origin coach next year if Kevin Walters takes the Titans job, QRL chairman Bruce Hatcher says.

Walters would not be able to do both the Titans and Queensland head coaching jobs because of the special challenges at the Gold Coast club, Hatcher said.

Hatcher said he wanted to stress his strong preference is for Walters to sign an extended contract to coach Queensland beyond 2018, but saw Bennett or Green being better placed to handle NRL and Origin jobs simultaneously in 2018 on an interim basis because of their greater experience.

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Bennett and Walters career’s continue to be intertwined. Photo: Jono Searle.

“I’m very supportive of Kevin as Queensland coach. I’d like Kevin to coach on and sign a contract extension with the QRL,’’ Hatcher said.

“If he says he wants to coach the Titans (next year), the QRL board would have to make a decision on whether they would hold him to his contract or release him. I won’t answer on behalf of the whole board — I have an opinion.

“In the event he took the Titans job and if the QRL board released him, it would be highly unlikely he would be able to take that job and continue to coach the Origin side.

“I’m confident Kevin has a plan for Origin and our high-performance program and he wants to fulfil that plan into the next generation of players. He’s the right man for that role.

“The obvious ones as interim coaches for a year or two are Paul Green and Wayne Bennett and there are a couple of assistant coaches who also may be considered.

“But the head coach of an NRL club has to get permission from his board (to also coach an Origin team).’’

Green was headhunted by the QRL board in late 2015 to assume the Maroons job vacated by Mal Meninga.

But Green elected to concentrate solely on the Cowboys in 2016 after consulting club bosses, with the job then taken by Walters.

Bennett last coached Queensland in 2003, but was miffed the Australian coaching job became a full-time one last year when he wanted it while still coaching the Broncos.

He may feel he is most experienced in a field rounded out by contenders untried in an NRL head coaching role such as Rabbitohs and Maroons assistant coach Anthony Siebold.

Green may feel his time with the Cowboys has come to a natural end.

“It’s such a competitive environment that the clubs don’t want to release players, so they really don’t want to release their coach,’’ Hatcher said.

“It’s extremely difficult to do both jobs. In an interim period, those two would be the most experienced to handle it. My preference would be a full-time Origin coach.

Hatcher said he is content for Walters’ meeting on Friday with QRL managing director Rob Moore to make clearer Walters’s interest in the Titans job.

“The meeting with Rob was to talk about resourcing for next year. We have a board meeting on Friday, at which I’d definitely expect we’d talk about the coaching position,’’ he said.

With three local NRL clubs, Queensland’s talent pool of coaching contenders with NRL experience is always going to be shallow in comparison with NSW’s.

Siebold, 42, is at his third NRL club as an assistant coach, but is seen as a relative up-and-comer.

Originally published as Wayne Bennett and Paul Green eyed as next Maroons coach if Kevin Walters joins Titans