Kevin Walters is favourite for Gold Coast Titans job — but is it worth the risk for Maroons coach?

ROBERT CRADDOCK: Kevin Walters’ coaching stocks are at their highest after two Origin series wins. He has always craved an NRL gig in Queensland. But are the Titans the right club?

Walters has experienced this highs — is he ready for the lows? (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

CRAIG Bellamy taught Kevin Walters much of what he knows about coaching — and suddenly there is one last lesson.

Many years ago when Bellamy was starting his coaching career, he was canvassed about taking the job at the Wests Tigers.

He was supremely tempted to take it, but felt if the team went up in smoke his fledgling career would go with it.

So he took a deep breath and said “no,” kicked himself around the block when the Tigers won a premiership, but has slept soundly ever since because his move to the Melbourne Storm was the best of his life.

The wait was worth it.

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Should Kevin Walters take the plunge into NRL coaching? (AAP Image/Darren England)

Walters has reached a similar juncture as he decides whether to toss his line into the shark pond which is the Gold Coast Titans coaching role.

The temptations are obvious.

His coaching stocks are at their highest after two Origin series wins. He has always craved an NRL gig in Queensland.

He is 50 in October. Few start later.

Expectations are at bootlace level, and that can be a delicious starting point for the right man.

Shift the team anywhere up the table and he’d look good. Take them to the finals and he would be Harry Potter minus the broom.

But for all the stimulating challenges, there is still a sense that Walters suddenly has too much to lose.

After winning two State of Origin series in a row, he is about to sign a contract that will give him three more years in a Queensland job with a team that truly excites him.

Dylan Napa, Dane Gagai, Cameron Munster ... he loves them all, and can be both a guiding light and beneficiary of their Origin careers.

And NSW are in disarray. There are fewer theories on global warming than there are about what is wrong with the Blues.

Queensland are in front already for next year’s series.

Do you really want to give this up to coach a club that just sacked it’s coach 12 months before his contract expired, and 12 months after he took them to the finals?

Walters has experienced this highs — is he ready for the lows? (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Walters is a bit like a punter at the Gold Coast casino who has won a fist-full of chips and is suddenly urged to go double-or-nothing on red or black at the roulette wheel.

Sometime over the next few years, Wayne Bennett will retire at the Broncos.

When he does, Walters will be one of the favourites to get the one job he truly craves.

If he missed out on the Broncos job, Paul Green will probably get it. If so, Walters could get the Cowboys job.

Either of these positions are far more stable than the trembling Titans — especially when he has to manage the maverick Jarryd Hayne, who has seen eight coaches sacked in nine years of NRL football.

The moral of the story? Player power normally wins.

Jump into the shark pond at your peril.

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