Editorial: How to not let Paul Green’s death be in vain

If Paul Green’s suicide has made you fear for a loved one or a mate, please do more than just ask if they are OK, writes the editor.

Paul Green is gone: the genius coach, the footy great, the life of the party, a mentor, a mate, a father and husband.

Gone – another victim of the mental demons that afflict so many of us; the demons that will, tragically, even today leave another eight Australian families – just like Greeny’s – mourning the death of a loved one to suicide.

There is another man who on one dark day also wanted to be gone. His name is John Brogden. In 2002 Brogden was crowned NSW Opposition Leader at the tender age of 33 – an Australian political record. He was a young man with the world at his feet. But he was also a human like all of us. And two years later he stuffed up. He had too many drinks at a function, acted like an idiot, and was forced to resign. He tried to end it all the very next day. But he survived. And today, 17 years later, Brogden says: “I thank God every day I am still alive.”

Brogden, now 53, wrote recently, in the wake of Green’s suicide: “I know now what I didn’t know then – there is more to life than your job. But back then when my career failed I was filled with so much shame I thought that not simply the only way – but the best way – to fix my problems and end my shame was to take my own life. For those who loved me, cared for me and supported me I had become their burden and I had to end that. (But) I was wrong. I was loved.”

Yesterday we witnessed the love the world has for Paul Green. At Kougari Oval, the Wynnum-Manly home ground that Greeny so loved, 700 friends and family gathered to share their memories.

As our chief sports writer Robert Craddock reported: “It took this … to reveal what an astonishing character the world has lost … An alpha wolf: kind, compassionate, fiercely determined and strategic” – a man who always looked after his pack, which in turn always had his back.

Mourners at Paul Green’s funeral yesterday. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

As a player and coach, Greeny was a man known for his toughness and fierce intensity. As a father, he wore make-up and long eyelashes to perform for his kids’ TikTok.

“I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I will love you forever,” his widow Amanda told the crowd, flanked by children Emerson, 13, and Jed, 10 – who boasted that his had been “the best dad ever”.

None of us will ever understand what thoughts and pain led Greeny to take his own life three weeks ago, on August 11. Brogden urges us to “not overlay rational thought on the most irrational of all acts”. Instead, he suggests we commit to doing everything possible to help those around us who are right now in “the darkest corner of their lives”.

And so if Greeny’s death has made you fear for a loved one or a mate then please do more than just ask if they are OK. Instead, have the courage to ask them straight: Are you feeling suicidal? Do you want to kill yourself? Do you want to hurt yourself? If they say yes, then do the same thing you would if they had just had a heart attack in front of you: call Triple-0 or get them to a hospital straight away.

And please if you are reading this and the coverage of Greeny’s death has led you to have thoughts that you know are irrational, then heed the advice of John Brogden, a man who once stood exactly where you are standing.

He advises: “There is no shame to being mentally ill. The real shame for you and those you love and who love you is not to get the help you need when you need it. Paul Green’s death shows us just when we think no one cares, we do.”

You can call Lifeline now on 13 11 14

JOURNALISM – YEP, IT STILL MATTERS

Those who doubt the value of quality journalism need only read our front-page story in today’s Courier-Mail.

Chris Dawson was yesterday found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette in 1982. And while detectives who put together the case against the former first grade rugby league star should be commended, there is no doubt Dawson would have got away with his heinous crime if not for the work of The Australian’s Hedley Thomas.

Thomas’s wildly successful Teacher’s Pet podcast shone a light on a cold case and forced authorities to have another look.

Not every journalist has such a spectacularly public affirmation of success, but they are out there every day squirrelling away – asking the difficult questions, and bravely holding the powerful to account.

Whether it be exposing integrity issues in government or corrupt business practices, journalism matters. And it always will.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: How to not let Paul Green’s death be in vain