North Queensland Cowboys coach Paul Green’s amazing finals run creates Dally M dilemma

HE guided the Cowboys into an unlikely grand final appearance but Paul Green remains an outsider to be named Dally M Coach of the Year.

IF the Dally M coach of the year was voted on today Paul Green would be the standout favourite to take the crown at Wednesday night’s gala awards.

But despite guiding North Queensland into an unlikely grand final appearance without injured co-captains Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott, Green remains an outsider behind Craig Bellamy and Brad Arthur.

As it stands, Dally M judges can only consider what happens during the course of the regular season, with finals performances not taken into account.

Paul Green always believed the Cowboys could reach the grand final.

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After 26 rounds, Bellamy had led Melbourne to a runaway win in the minor premiership, while Arthur managed to get Parramatta into the top four despite not having a current State of Origin player.

In comparison, the Cowboys lost five of their last six games to scrape into the finals in eighth spot.

But that was before Green conjured up what is now being hailed as one of the great coaching efforts, with an against-the-odds run of wins over Cronulla, Parramatta and the Sydney Roosters, that has the Cowboys on the brink of history.

While Bellamy, Arthur and Green would all be worthy winners, it does raise a legitimate debate if there needs to be a change to the Dally M voting system going forward.

Asked if he believed Green was coach of the year, Brad Fittler said on Channel Nine’s Sunday Footy Show: “For sure.”

But that was before Fittler was reminded finals performances were not considered.

Paul Green is set to be overlooked as Dally M coach of the year.

Meanwhile, Green on Sunday spoke with pride about the courage of his team that has won so much admiration for the gutsy way they have fought through adversity.

“They deserve everything they have got because they have stuck to it and worked hard,” Green told News Corp Australia.

“We are reaping the rewards now for some of the hard times we went through in the year, which there were plenty of.”

It wasn’t only the injuries to Thurston and Scott.

Along the way the Cowboys also had to contend with periods without the likes of Jake Granville, Gavin Cooper, Justin O’Neill and Lachlan Coote, along with plenty of others who have battled through injury in recent weeks including Antonio Winterstein, Kyle Feldt, Coen Hess and Scott Bolton.

Green said while almost everyone else gave up on his squad, he never stopped believing they were capable of making the grand final.

“Yeah I did. I have always felt that,” Green said.

“I said at the start of the finals, it doesn’t matter what everyone else believes.

“What matters is what we believe.

“That’s genuine, that’s authentic and that is what matters.

“It has been a wonderful year for a lot of reasons.

“We have had everything against us but that has probably been the story of our year.

“That is why I am so proud of the players.

“It is a credit to them.

“They just keep fronting up and just accept whatever comes our way and get on with the job.”