Tragedy as Paul Green, great mate Andrew Symonds die within months

Paul Green’s death sent shockwaves through the rugby league world and came just months after his mate Andrew Symonds passed away.

Paul Green and Andrew Symonds after playing Bulls Masters in 2014. Photo: Instagram / plgrn07

The tragic deaths of rugby league great Paul Green and cricket legend Andrew Symonds just three months apart have left an enormous hole in the Townsville community and Australian sporting landscape.

Green was found dead in his family home on Thursday morning aged 49, just months after his great mate Symonds was killed in a car crash outside of Townsville at the age of 46.

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Green, who coached the Cowboys to their maiden premiership in 2015, and Symonds, the hulking all-rounder and one of Townsville’s favourite sons, shared a close friendship. The pair bonded over their shared love of cricket, rugby league and fishing.

Symonds was an avid footy fan, supporting the Brisbane Broncos and even training with the side in 2007. He once considered ditching cricket to try and crack the NRL.

Green, who ended his playing career after the 2004 season, which he spent at the Broncos, soon joined Wayne Bennett’s staff in 2005 until the 2010 season.

Green and Symonds also crossed paths in 2014 when the cricket icon captained the Bulls Masters team, which featured the NRL icon.

At the 2014 event, Green posted a photo to Instagram with Symonds’ arm wrapped around the NRL great, posting: “Got to bat with my good mate Roy. Had a good day with #bulls masters @mands_green.”

Symonds wrote after the game: “Little Pauly Green did himself proud in the Bulls Masters this weekend. Go well with the new job champ, I can feel some silverware.”

This was January 2014, before Green’s first season as coach of North Queensland. At the end of the next season, the Cowboys would win the club’s first premiership.

Green also posted photos from a 2017 cricket event where he played alongside former NRL star Paul Bowman and Symonds once again.

Green and Bowman at the 2017 Bulls Masters. Photo: Instagram / plgrn07

Bowman and Symonds at the 2017 Bulls Masters. Photo: Instagram / plgrn07

The pair shared a love of fishing, which was seen throughout their Instagram timelines.

Green also attended Symonds’ funeral in May.

Speaking on Fox Sports News on Thursday, News Corp journalist Robert Craddock detailed the pair’s strong bond.

“He (Green) came up to Andrew Symonds’ funeral in Townsville, and sat in the second back row, I remember casting my eye over him,” Craddock said.

“He was really devastated because he loved Symonds’ free spirit. And Symonds would turn up to Cowboys games and chat to Greeny, they were an interesting combination.

“He loved the larrikin element of Andrew Symonds, did Paul Green, and was really devastated by his death because they just talk footy, they could talk fishing, they could talk life. Andrew had friends from all around the place and Paul Green was definitely one of them.

“It’s funny, at that service for Symonds, it was such a blur because it was so emotional but I can still remember Paul Green’s face, he was really shattered.”

Craddock also said the news of Green’s death “numbed the state of Queensland”.

Green had a glittering rugby league career. He won the Rothmans Medal, the player of the year gong, with one each awarded to the best player in NSW and the best in Queensland. He won the Queensland award in 1993, before winning in NSW in 1995 with the Cronulla Sharks.

The award has since become the Dally M Medal as of 1998.

Paul Green, gone far too soon. Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett, who coached Green in 2004 and also coached against him in the 2015 grand final, revealed he had been three weeks into negotiations to bring the former Cowboys mentor onto his staff next season.

“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.”

“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.”

Bennett added rugby league would be “heartbroken” over the loss, as tributes flowed in from around the sporting world.

Originally published as Tragedy as Paul Green, great mate Andrew Symonds die within months