NRL 2020: Cowboys to stand by coach Paul Green despite poor season
The Cowboys are looking to bolster their coaching stocks to support Paul Green as they look to turn their form around and avoid missing the finals for the third straight season.
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Cowboys bosses are backing underfire mentor Paul Green and will begin exploring the NRL coaching market to give him more assistance to haul North Queensland out of their form crisis.
The Courier-Mail can reveal Cowboys hierarchy are on the hunt for an assistant to provide Green with more manpower as the head coach fights to avoid missing the finals for the third consecutive season.
Green heads into this Sunday’s clash against high-flying Penrith at Panthers Stadium having won 20 of his last 57 games.
That‘s a 35 per cent win record since he steered the Cowboys to the 2017 grand final — an identical figure to Steve Kearney’s career success rate which triggered his sacking at the Warriors last month.
But the Cowboys are determined not to jettison Green with the North Queensland board reluctant to entertain the prospect of a $1 million-plus payout for the coach who delivered their maiden premiership in 2015.
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Instead, Cowboys powerbrokers are assessing ways to help Green and one solution is beefing-up one of the most underrated facets of the NRL’s modern era — a head coach’s team of assistants.
Green is happy with his current right-hand man Josh Hannay, but was rocked by the departure of his other key staffer David Fairleigh, who quit on the eve of the premiership in February to take up a role at the NRL.
That has left a void in the club’s coaching ranks and North Queensland believe another trusted ally can help Green kickstart a Cowboys resurgence.
The NRL is littered with quality assistants with the likes of Craig Fitzgibbon (Roosters), David Furner (Newcastle), Jason Ryles (Storm), Shane Flanagan (Dragons) and Jason Demetriou (Souths) all playing key roles at their respective clubs.
The Cowboys have a history of providing Green with excellent deputies.
Furner and Demetriou were assistants in the Cowboys’ historic premiership win, while Green has also worked with John Cartwright and Todd Payten, who is currently caretaker coach of the Warriors.
Green became the most-capped coach in Cowboys history last month and influential figures have not forgotten his ability to steer the club to two grand finals in three seasons.
But two bottom-four campaigns have been compounded by a dismal start this season, with the Cowboys heading into the Panthers clash having leaked 253 points — the worst defensive record in the league.
Green said on Tuesday he had given Cowboys players a long weekend’s rest to energise the group following last week’s 42-16 rout against the Roosters.
“If you keep doing what you have always done and expect a different result, it’s the definition of insanity,” he said.
“We are always looking at how we freshen things up and can do things differently.
“On top of all the challenges we already have in the season so far with the restrictions, we are looking at ways to freshen things up. We gave the boys four days off and that is part of that.
“We have enough challenges on our own plate so we are focused on ourselves at the moment.”