Cowboys coach Paul Green hoping to sign contract extension with North Queensland

COWBOYS coach Paul Green is so content at North Queensland he will shun interest from potential suitors to sign an upgraded deal to remain in Townsville.

The NQ Cowboys pre-season training at the Townsville Sports Reserve. Cowboy's Head Coach Paul Green. Picture: Wesley Monts

COWBOYS coach Paul Green is so content at North Queensland he will shun interest from potential NRL suitors to sign an upgraded deal to remain in Townsville.

In a boost for the Cowboys on the eve of the derby clash against the Broncos, Green says he has no plans to quit the club that gambled by launching his NRL coaching career.

While the Cowboys travel to Suncorp Stadium under pressure after consecutive losses, North Queensland’s board remain convinced Green can deliver the club’s maiden title.

Off-contract at season’s end, Green has entered talks with Cowboys hierarchy on a multi-year deal that will keep him in north Queensland until at least 2017.

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Paul Green is enjoying life in North Queensland.

The 42-year-old is highly regarded among the next generation of NRL tacticians and would be a frontline contender for any first-grade vacancy that becomes available next season.

But after steering the Cowboys to within two wins of a grand-final appearance last season, Green is determined to broker a new deal without testing the marketplace.

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” he told The Courier-Mail.

“I have started something here and I want to see it through. Not that I think there’s an end-date either, my family is up here, I’m happy with the club and I’m not interesting in moving anywhere.

“Talks have stalled a little bit, we’ve had a change of CEO so maybe that’s part of it. I’d like to get it sorted sooner rather than later, but I also have to do my job well here.”

Green’s appointment was viewed as risky given the ex-Maroons halfback had worked only at Intrust Super Cup level and in NRL assistant’s roles.

But Green has stamped himself as a long-term NRL coach in Townsville, earning the respect of senior players headed by co-captains Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott.

Tonight, Green goes back to the future when he locks horns with Broncos mentor Wayne Bennett, who played a key role in his early coaching years at Red Hill in 2005.

It was Bennett who suggested Green could benefit from coaching in the Intrust Super Cup, prompting him to quit the Broncos to take charge of Wynnum Manly.

Green has earned the respect of senior players after making the Cowboys real contenders.

“Paul was always going to make it,” Bennett said.

“At the time, I could have made him the under-20s coach, but I made Anthony Griffin the coach instead.

“Paul needed to work on a few things that would make him a better coach down the track, but I saw it in him.

“Paul is a very thorough guy, very committed, he gives 100 per cent.

“He was always going to be a coach. It was a matter of doing an apprenticeship, he did that and went to Wynnum, he did his time out there and went to the Roosters and had a year there.

“He couldn’t have a better apprenticeship to come into the NRL.”