Maroons boss lashes Walters critics

QRL chair Bruce Hatcher has lashed out at the people who keep questioning Kevin Walters experience as a coach

Kevin Walters is one of the favourites for the vacant coaching job at the Brisbane NRL club Picture: Getty Images

Queensland Rugby League chair Bruce Hatcher has slapped down suggestions that Kevin Walters lack of NRL head coaching experience should be factor when it comes to determining the next coach of the Brisbane Broncos.

Hatcher, who has been one of Walter’s greatest advocates, is sick and tired of critics suggesting Walters would be a risky appointment because he is yet to be in sole control of an NRL club.

Walters only previous stint as a head coach at the upper echelons of the game was at French Super League side Catalans, where he enjoyed success in the first year before leaving the club at the end of the second.

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He returned to Australia and spent time as an assistant to Craig Bellamy in Melbourne and Wayne Bennett at Brisbane before accepting the position as head coach of the Queensland State of Origin side, immediately guiding the Maroons to successive wins over NSW.

There have been slim pickings over the past two series as the Maroons have suffered successive defeats. Yet Hatcher would argue there is no greater litmus test for a coach’s ability to handle pressure than the deciding game of an Origin series, which Walters has faced on numerous occasions.

“There is not a lot he hasn’t had to face,” Hatcher said.

“The guy has been in the hotbed of Origin, he has had adversity, he’s fronted up. I don’t know why he is termed a rookie coach.”

Hatcher’s public lashing of those who question Walters’ credentials comes as the Broncos edge towards their appointment of a chief executive and then coach.

The club has a board meeting scheduled for Monday night where they are expected to make a final call on the new chief executive, who will step into the shoes of Paul White and attempt to steer the club out of the doldrums.

Just over a week later, the expectation is that they will unveil the coach to take them into the future. Walters is locked in a battle with Paul Green for the top job, the pair both having legitimate claims on the role.

Walters has seemingly been ordained as Broncos coach for years, having initially been viewed as the successor to Wayne Bennett. Green also played for the club and has a premiership win under his belt at North Queensland.

One day Walters is believed to have his nose in front. The next it is Green. If you listen to the rumour mill, Walters already has his staff in place. Green is said to be working on his dream coaching coterie.

When Tevita Pangai Junior was threatening to leave the club, both men were said to have contacted the blockbusting back rower in an attempt to convince him to stay.

Bennett has also been linked with the club in a coaching director capacity and it is understood there have been tentative approaches about the potential for him to return as early as next year from someone purporting to represent the seven-time premiership winner.

The possibility of that happening would appear to be remote given the circumstances that surrounded his departure from the Broncos at the end of 2018.

Bennett engaged in an ugly stoush with club officials, was shown the door and then threatened to sue the Broncos for unfair dismissal.

Hatcher’s only concern is that Walters is given a fair go, even if it means he is forced to stand down as Queensland coach and focus on his duties at the Broncos should he be given the role.

If that is the case, Hatcher would like to know by the end of September. The Maroons have big decisions to make and they need a coach in place who can make them.