NRL 2022: Former Ipswich Jets coaches Ben and Shane Walker urge clubs to give them a shot

They are the best coaches without an NRL job. Ben and Shane Walker say they’re ready for the NRL and they’re willing to risk it all to prove it.

Former Ipswich Jets co-coaches Shane and Ben Walker say if they don’t make finals in their first year in the NRL the club can sack them.

Premiership co-coaches Ben and Shane Walker have blasted suggestions they are a high-risk appointment and have made an extraordinary offer to launch their careers in the NRL.

The Wests Tigers, Warriors and Canterbury are on the lookout for new head coaches and News Corp can reveal the Walkers have reached out to Tigers football boss Tim Sheens to outline their interest in succeeding sacked Michael Maguire at Concord.

NRL Immortal Andrew Johns is a huge fan of the Walkers’ coaching style, calling for NRL clubs to give the brothers their big break. The Walkers steered the Ipswich Jets to the club’s first ever premiership in 2015, winning the Intrust Super Cup despite owning the lowest budget in the league.

Johns, one of the code’s greatest playmaking minds, believes the Queensland duo would inject fresh ideas to rugby league and Ben Walker is so confident he has formulated a novel proposal to prospective NRL employers.

“It wouldn’t matter which team we coach, we will get success,” Walker said.

“In fact, we will say this to any club who gives us a chance — we are prepared to sign only a one-year contract and that club can sack us if we don’t make the finals in the first season.

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Chris Walker (left) and his brothers, Jets coaches Ben and Shane Walker (far right), celebrate winning the Intrust Super Cup grand final. It was Ipswich’s first ever title.

“We always back ourselves.

“We actually run successful businesses away from rugby league, so we coach because we love it and have a passion to help players be better, not because we are trying to keep a job in the industry.

“It wouldn’t be a risk for any club to give us a chance.

“Our record shows we get success.”

When the Walkers took charge of Ipswich, the cash-strapped Jets were reigning wooden spooners.

The former NRL players turned the Jets into the powerhouse of the Queensland Cup. They made the finals in seven of nine seasons, headlined by the Jets’ historic premiership triumph in 2015. The Walkers went on to win the NRL State Championship in the same season.

Since the Walkers departed Ipswich at the end of 2018, the Jets have crashed and burned, winning three of 27 games. Ipswich are dead last this season in the Queensland Cup, having lost their first nine games.

There is a view the Walkers’ tactical style is too risky, but Ben is bemused by that perception given their incredible winning record.

“We have never had a losing season in terms of win percentage,” Ben said.

“We actually design game plans not to be risky.

“I can never get my head around this suggestion that we are risky coaches.

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has called for an NRL club to give the Walker brothers their big break in coaching.

“Someone uses the word and suddenly it catches and that’s the vocabulary everyone wants to associate with us.

“We actually do not coach high-risk football. How we actually coach is by taking the majority of risk out of our play.

“For example, a lot of errors are made in the NRL when a lead runner hits a gap and they are about to be smashed or go through a hole. Invariably, they make an error because they lose the ball in contact trying to catch the ball right on the advantage line.

“Everything we do is about attacking away from the advantage line so we take the risk out of that type of error occurring.

“We are absolutely interested in an NRL job.

“I honestly don’t know what more we can do to show we are ready for the NRL. We know we can coach. We just want someone to give us a gig … they won’t regret it.”

Warriors owner Mark Robinson ruled out the Walkers during the week, saying he had concerns about a co-coaching model. But Shane Walker said clubs should not be worried about a co-coaching concept.

“If it’s that big a deal, one of us would happily step back and let the other guy be the head coach,” Shane said.

“I’d be happy to toss a coin with Ben and see who wants to be the head coach if it’s such an issue.

“The co-coaching model has worked for us. As brothers we think the same way.

“Since we left Ipswich, the Jets have won three games in three seasons so clearly we did something right.

“During our time at Ipswich, we had 22 players sign contracts with NRL clubs. Guys like Kurt Capewell and Matt Parcell went on to play NRL and Kurt is an Origin player, so we’re very proud of the guys we helped bring through.”

Originally published as NRL 2022: Former Ipswich Jets coaches Ben and Shane Walker urge clubs to give them a shot