State of Origin 2018: Kevin Walters regenerated Queensland in one go, so don’t be surprised if the Maroons keep winning
KEVIN Walters isn’t who you think he is. The jokes pull you in but this is the man who regenerated Queensland in one fell swoop, so don’t be surprised if the Maroons keep winning, writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WHEN the list of Queensland threats is assembled Kevin Walters is never mentioned.
This is a tremendous oversight on NSW’s part.
Walters comes in as 18th man — but in every way — if he is lucky.
Nowhere in the scriptures is the Clown Prince ever the Leading Man. Kevin Walters is a facade, though.
GAME-CHANGERS: Players to make or break Origin
DALEY: Potential flaw in Freddie’s plan
The rich vein of humour that runs through his body is a weapon to disarm.
It was there again on Tuesday when Billy Slater announced this will be his last Origin series.
Slater was asked what his legacy might be and his modesty crashed with his honesty, a smile appearing as he began to fumble a response.
“I’ll answer that for you Bill,” Walters said, going on to say how Billy Slater was so good he changed the way fullbacks play the game, that he epitomised what Origin was about.
“ … that’s a better answer than the one you were going to come up with,” Walters said.
Slater’s retirement was not unexpected. He joins Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston in the conga line of recent Queensland exits.
The man left to pick himself up was Walters.
He regenerated Queensland in a single series last year. Val Holmes, Dylan Napa, Coen Hess, Anthony Milford, Jarrod Wallace, Tim Glasby, Ben Hunt and Cameron Munster all debuted as the likes of Nate Myles and Jacob Lillyman were ushered out, Queensland still winning the series.
He reduced five years work into one. NSW is still trying to figure out how he did it.
His advantage last year was the small luxury of doing it on the back of Smith, Cronk, Thurston and Slater helping guide the new players.
But Slater now is set to join them in retirement and Walters must oversee a second cycle, this time without his team leaders.
The Blues are at prohibitive odds already for this season.
The odds completely overlook the formline. The Blues have more players on debut than Queensland, 11 to three. Not one of them has played in a series win.
They have just 39 games experience against Queensland’s 112 Origin games.
But Queensland has Walters, one of rugby league’s greatest winners, leading them.
He won more premierships as a player than anybody who did not play in St George’s 11-year premiership streak and sits equal seventh all-time.
Walters won six. That he did it in the modern era, when salary caps influenced rosters, elevates it.
None of his teammates are surprised at this other side of Walters.
There was a day early in the 2000 season when the Broncos were pulling back and having a beer and the big boys dominated the conversation.
This was a where everything was big.
Gorden Tallis and Shane Webcke, Brad Thorn and Wendell Sailor.
Walters was out injured. Slightly to the side was Ben Ikin, still new at the club when the talk got around to footy.
“We’ve got a team that can win the premiership this year,” Walters said.
At that their ears pricked and his teammates got interested and Ikin sat fascinated as Walters spoke.
The Broncos had come off a poor season. They finished eighth the season before, falling into the finals by a point as the reigning premiers.
“You blokes just need to trust me,” Walters said.
Walters was captain, and they did trust. Brisbane beat the Roosters in the grand final.
Tallis said he is the mentally toughest player he played alongside.
He always saw the two sides of Walters at the Broncos. The Clown Prince and the Leading Man.
For years Walters ran alongside Allan Langer at the back of any organised running they were required to complete, cracking jokes along the way, keeping it light.
When Langer retired and Walters had lost his comedy partner he acknowledged his own looming retirement and the need to remain in peak condition and so it all changed.
He won everything.
The Broncos had an annual run at The Gap, the toughest roadwork any of them undertook, and Walters never got headed.
This hard edge surprised anybody who had not played with him.
Now he has won the past two series as Queensland coach and is establishing a blue-chip pedigree as a coach. And yet he continues having to pick himself up and prove himself again.
Just months ago he quietly resigned from the Broncos’ coaching staff when many were led to believe he was being groomed as Wayne Bennett’s successor.
Then we learned the Broncos were quietly wooing Craig Bellamy.
He made the shortlist for the North Queensland job but got beaten to it by the current coach, Paul Green.
The other two coaches in the final round of interviews, Brad Arthur and Trent Barrett, also now coach at other NRL clubs.
“Rugby league is the world to him,” Tallis said.
“I’m not sure some of these other coaches would still be coaching if they were not doing it here or not being paid what they are, but if Kevvie was not doing it here he would be doing it somewhere else, whatever level it was at.”
A lot has been said about the new-look Blues and their new look coach.
Don’t forget the other guy.