Maroons coach Billy Slater’s apology to Paul Green’s family

Queensland coach Billy Slater has apologised for linking Paul Green’s death to coaching pressures.

Queensland coach Billy Slater. Picture: Getty Images

Queensland coach Billy Slater has apologised for linking Paul Green’s death to coaching pressures, clarifying the former Maroons coach was suffering from the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused by his rugby league career.

In an extraordinary admission, Slater confirmed he made an apologetic phone call to Green’s wife Amanda on Wednesday.

The development emerged after Slater launched a stunning attack on former Blues prop Aaron Woods on Tuesday after the radio host had called the current Queensland coach a “grub”.

In a savage spray, Slater said Woods needed to look at his ­privileged position in the game as a commentator and made a ­reference to Queensland’s “last coach” before him, Paul Green, who took his own life in August 2022 and was found to have a ­“severe” case of CTE.

However, in an unprecedented turn of events, just hours before the Maroons were due to attempt to save the series against NSW, Slater fronted the media in Perth just after 8.30am on Wednesday.

“Yesterday I wrongly made the link between Paul Green’s death and the stress and pressures of coaching, which wasn’t accurate and nor was it appropriate,’’ Slater said.

“I feel terrible about what I said and I spoke to Amanda Green this morning and apologised for any hurt it may have caused her or her family. I just want to say this, Paul had CTE, that is a different disease to what I was referring to. I am deeply and genuinely sorry.’’

Paul Green. Picture: Getty Images

The degenerative brain disease CTE has been linked to repetitive head impacts.

Green played 162 games across five different clubs as a halfback, five-eighth and hooker while also playing seven State of Origins for Queensland. He later became an NRL premiership-winning coach, leading the Cowboys to their 2015 title, and he guided the Maroons.

Since his death in 2022, and his CTE diagnosis post-mortem, his wife has moved to raise awareness about the link between CTE and contact sports.

She became an Australian Sports Brain Bank ambassador and had made it clear that a brain injury, not mental health caused her husband to take his life.

“Paul wasn’t depressed, (he) showed no signs of mental health issues, his family was everything to him,” she told The Australian not long after his death. “There were no signs. We often talked about our future and what that looked like. I never once doubted that we would spend the rest of our lives ­together.”

She was yet to comment on the Slater statement or call.

Of Green’s sudden death, ASBB’s Dr Michael Buckland said at the time that he had “an organic brain disease which robbed him of his decision-making and impulse control”.

“It was not him, it was the brain disease …” Dr Buckland said.“The only known cause for the organic brain disease is exposure to repetitive head impacts. “I suspect he would have been coping with stuff he didn’t understand for quite a while. He didn’t have mental health ­problems; he just couldn’t control stuff that was going on in his head.”