‘Three weeks ago’: Wayne Bennett reveals tragic Paul Green news after shock death
Wayne Bennett has opened up after the death of Paul Green, a man who he knew as a player and coached against, and his next step.
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Supercoach Wayne Bennett has revealed he was in negotiations to bring Paul Green into his coaching team for the Dolphins’ inaugural NRL season in 2023.
Premiership-winning coach Green died in his family home on Thursday morning at the age of 49.
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As the shock washed over the rugby league world, Bennett, who both coached Green at the Broncos in 2004 during his final season in the NRL and against him — most notably in the 2015 grand final — revealed he had been in talks to add the former halfback to his Dolphins staff.
Green was also part of Bennett’s coaching staff in 2006 when the Broncos won the premiership.
Bennett said “I knew he could coach” from that first experience and added his intelligence “set him aside from a lot of players I coached”.
“He made a great contribution and he had a lot of coaching in front of him,” Bennett said on Triple M’s The Rush Hour with Leisel, Liam and Dobbo.
“I offered him a position at the Dolphins in the last three weeks. Three weeks ago now we were in negotiations at the time.
“I think he was keen to come, but we were just trying to work out a contract for him. That’s how much I thought of him.”
Bennett preceded Green as the Queensland Origin coach and said he stayed in contact with him after handing over the reins for the 2021 series.
“I was watching him from afar and I certainly was close to him in the Origin last year and I kept in contact with him there when he got the job,” Bennett said.
“I knew there was a bit of a challenge there in front of him. I spoke to him on a number of occasions.
“I didn’t want to see him out of coaching. I just think he had too much to offer.
“If I could help him get back into coaching by coming to the Dolphins it would have made us a pretty formidable coaching team with him there.
“I saw it as a way back into the NRL for him if he wanted to do that.
“I wasn’t sure he was busting his but to get back there because it is a pretty cruel place at times and you have a lot of disappointment and the Origin series would have hurt enormously because there is so much expectation there. I don’t think, there’s never been a Queensland coach that hasn’t felt that expectation and I know he would have.
“I saw it as a way for him to come and spend a couple of years with us and go back as a head coach somewhere.”
Green had a strong coaching career, leading the Cowboys to their maiden premiership over Bennett’s Broncos in 2015, while also leading the side back to the grand final in 2017 despite losing Johnathan Thurston through injury.
As the rugby league world was devastated by the loss, Bennett said Green’s impact will be felt across the competition.
“I think it is a tough day for rugby league,” Bennett told Triple M. “Paul Green was such a big part of the game and he has been for over two or three decades.
“He had an influence and impact on so many people.
“I think all of rugby league will be heartbroken today, there is no doubt about that.
“He was a decent person — that’s the main thing, he was a decent man. You won’t get many people bagging Paul Green.”
On Thursday, former Cowboys chairman Laurence Lancini told News Corp Green had seemed fine three days ago when he spoke to him to say they should catch up for a beer soon. But Lancini did say that “the last few years had been tough on” Green, after losing his coaching jobs at the Cowboys and with the Queensland Origin team.
“Greeny mentioned he was keen to coach again and had some options and I asked Greeny if he really wanted to go back into it again,” Lancini said.
“I said to Paul, the last club you coached, you took the Cowboys to the premiership and you took us to two grand finals. Just leave coaching behind and do something else.
“But Greeny still had that real drive. He wanted to coach again.
“Greeny has come from a position where he coached a club to a premiership and a second grand final. He has coached State of Origin. He has coached at the highest levels and I think Greeny was a bit lost and confused about where his life needed to be without coaching.
“The thing about Greeny is he was a high achiever and high achievers always want to be achieving something.
“The last few years have been a bit tough on him because he hasn’t been coaching in the NRL.
“I said to Greeny, just take your time and the right opportunity will come along.”
Green’s Origin tenure lasted three matches, before he was replaced by Billy Slater.
Last February he sold his family home in Townsville for $1.85 million, and admitted it was difficult to let go of the place where his two kids, Jed and Emerson, had grown up.
“It is pretty tough to move and tough on the family,” he said at the time.
Despite the tough times, Green looked delighted as he chatted with journalists while holding a reunion with former Cronulla Sharks players last weekend.
The talented halfback played 95 times for the Sharks, as well as turning out for the Cowboys, Roosters, Eels and Broncos in a 162-game first grade career.
Originally published as ‘Three weeks ago’: Wayne Bennett reveals tragic Paul Green news after shock death
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