Kevin Walters’ journey to Maroons coach started 10 years ago when sacked by Wayne Bennett

TEN years after he was sacked by Wayne Bennett as Broncos assistant coach, new Queensland coach Kevin Walters says it helped him become his own man.

Coaches Wayne Bennett and Kevin Walters at Brisbane Broncos training, Red Hill. Pic Jono Searle.

TEN years after he was sacked by Wayne Bennett as Broncos assistant coach, new Queensland Origin coach Kevin Walters says it helped him become his own man away from Bennett’s long, thin shadow.

Walters, rejected for NRL head coach jobs at Wests Tigers and North Queensland, said the hard, patient road travelled through Ipswich, France, Melbourne and Red Hill has instructed him to trust his own football judgment.

It is sometimes misunderstood, because of their close dealings as player and coach, that Walters did not work on Bennett’s NRL staff between 2005 and 2014.

Bennett sacked Walters, Glenn Lazarus and Gary Belcher from his staff for the 2006 season, a difficult decision vindicated by Brisbane’s most recent premiership won in that year.

“Wayne hasn’t been a big part of what I’ve learnt as a coach,’’ Walters told The Courier-Mail.

“He was great when I was at the Broncos, but I had to rightly or wrongly make my own decisions on where I needed to go.

“When Wayne asked me to move on, as disappointing as it was it made me find my own way with coaching. I love the Broncos and still do but I was determined and knew I had a lot to offer as a coach.

Kevin Walters and Wayne Bennett during a Broncos training session. Pic Darren England.

“It is a position I have been working hard for 10 years.’’

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Asked if his reputation as a player of being a fun-loving larrikin cost him coaching jobs, Walters said: “Possibly. I always see the positive in anything and that can be (misinterpreted as) a bit of a prankster. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I like to have fun and there are times for that. I feel I’m a good judge of who and can’t play, who is a dickhead, who doesn’t want to be part of something really special.

“I wouldn’t have been to France (to coach Catalan in 2009 and 2010), I wouldn’t have driven up and back to Ipswich to coach for no money the team who finished last the year before if I wasn’t passionate about my coaching or serious about it.

“I had two of my three years in Melbourne away from my family and that was very hard. But my wife and I knew it was best for my development to be at the Storm for when an opportunity like this came along.’’

Walters said he wanted the environment in Maroons camp to be similar to what it was under Mal Meninga, “relaxed, very positive, but also knowing when we are at work and when we are at play’’.

“I have taught myself over the years that I’m not Wayne Bennett, I’m not Mal Meninga, I’m not Craig Bellamy,’’ he said.

Walters was shattered at the news that the QRL had courted Paul Green’s services, before Green’s December 17 announcement that he would not seek the Maroons job.

The 11th Queensland Origin coach said it was “not awkward at all’’ to be a second-choice candidate when he made the decision to phone QRL chairman Peter Betros on December 19 to lay out his case for his appointment.

Betros said Walters was not the only other candidate to press claims and he was the unanimous appointee of the QRL Board.

Walters stamped his first day on the job with an outward, assertive confidence he did not always portray in a 20-game Origin career in which he grappled with the role of playing in Wally Lewis’ former position, not always with the full trust of coaches Graham Lowe and Paul Vautin.

“I’m so happy I made the phone call (to Betros) to say “where are we going with this’,’’ Walters said.