State of Origin 2017: Queensland coach Kevin Walters maturing as a coach

KEVIN Walters craved to be a head coach for decades but it took until four months shy of his 50th birthday to find out what it really means, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Kevin Walters explains his selections to the media. Photo: Tim Marsden

KEVIN Walters craved to be a head coach for decades but it has taken until four months shy of his 50th birthday to find out what it really means.

“No kleenexes needed today,’’ Queensland coach Walters quipped as he left the press conference ushering in seven changes in a State of Origin revolution.

Walters was poking fun at himself and how he fought back tears announcing the omission of Billy Slater for Origin I a few weeks ago.

This time there was more blood but no tears. Origin coaching is so big you can actually see people hardening up in the job.

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Kevin Walters explains his selections to the media. Photo: Tim Marsden

It has to be this way. If you cannot put some sort of crust around your emotions they’ll get sliced and diced before your very eyes.

And Walters’ emotions were given an extreme workout in the hours before the team announcement.

He took it upon himself to ring all six players axed from the first team and would have hated every bleeding minute on the phone to old mates like Nate Myles and Sam Thaiday, and even young bucks like Corey Oates who could not have seen it coming.

Walters spent the majority of his rugby league career playing the joker. Suddenly he was playing Father Time.

The jolt would have been accentuated by the fact that most of his playing and coaching career has been associated with happy days and winning teams (Brisbane, Melbourne, Queensland and Australia) who traded on stability and success, which allowed the sunny side of Walters’ nature to light up the room.

Monday saw both sides of Walters character — there were flashes of the affable quipster who said he wasn’t sure where Darius Boyd would play but “it probably would not be in the forwards.’’

But, inevitably, the stronger vibe was cast by the loyalist turned realist who accepted the brutal truth that things had to change.

Walters and fellow selectors Gene Miles and Darren Lockyer have learnt the simple, unavoidable lesson that the Maroon jersey rouses players to extreme heights but it does not turn Clark Kent’s into Superman.

As willing as he has always been, thirty-one-year-olds like Nate Myles don’t suddenly become 26 again with a change of jumper when they are averaging less than 30 minutes off the bench for Manly this season.

Walters with chief selector Gene Miles and QRL Chairman Bruce Hatcher. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

When he was a player Walters was often a “go to’’ man for journalists after games who felt that he summed up a match in a sentence or two as well as any other player of his era.

And the pithy straight talk was there again in the 13th minute of his press conference on Monday when he said simply “it’s no secret we got beaten up through the middle — our forwards did not aim up.’’

You can see the coach hardening before your eyes — hopefully the team will do the same.