Justin Hodges, Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston join Kevin Walters on Maroons Origin staff
Queensland coach Kevin Walters is shaking things up for the Maroons in 2019, bringing in three of game’s biggest names from the team’s most successful generation.
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Queensland coach Kevin Walters has signalled his intention to start afresh for 2019 after a devastating series loss, bringing in three Maroons greats to help with coaching.
Justin Hodges has been brought in as assistant coach for the series, with the just-retired duo of Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater to be in camp in roles the QRL describe as “coaching and mentoring’’.
The move comes at the cost of Queensland legend Trevor Gillmeister.
Gillmeister has copped on the chin Walters’ decision to bring “fresh faces’’ to the Queensland State of Origin coaching staff.
Being a dual Broncos premiership teammate of Walters’ and long-term Origin team associate did not save Gillmeister in a staff cull in response to Queensland’s series loss.
It clearly aims at tapping into ex-Maroons who more recently played Origin.
Gillmeister, who got out of a hospital bed to captain Queensland to a win in 1995, was defensive coach and a game-night runner for the Maroons for several years.
“I would have liked to stay on, but it’s probably time for a change,’’ Gillmeister told The Courier-Mail.
Assistant coach Josh Hannay and long-time trainer Tony Spencer were also among the staffers to leave the team, who will be trained by Melbourne’s Matthew Barradeen and have Petero Civoniceva, a stalwart, as one of the team managers.
Hodges coached Queensland’s under-20 team to a win last winter and his appointment is a significant pointer that he could graduate to Maroons Origin coach.
“Trevor Gillmeister is a Queensland legend and Tony has worked tirelessly with the team for nearly 20 years as a trainer,” Walters said.
“They have been great servants, but I just felt that the time was right to get fresh faces in and around the team with the next generation of players coming through.”
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Originally published as Justin Hodges, Billy Slater and Johnathan Thurston join Kevin Walters on Maroons Origin staff
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