My first memories of Paul Green are of a baby-faced kid in the Easts Tigers’ dressing rooms in Brisbane in 1992, with coach, Johnny Lang singing his praises. The last time I saw Green was at Wynnum-Manly’s 70th anniversary lunch at their Leagues Club in September, 2021, when I interviewed him and fellow Seagulls’ legends, Gene Miles, Craig Greenhill, Chris McKenna, Luke Dalziel-Don, Ken Churchill and Paul’s father, Ned, a foundation Wynnum player.
In between times, I reported on Green’s Rothman’s Gold Medal wins in Brisbane and Sydney; his selection for Australia’s Super League side; his appearances for Queensland in the State of Origin arena; and numerous club appearances, especially for Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, the club he joined from Brisbane Easts in 1994, along with fellow Tigers, chief executive, Shane Richardson; coach, Lang; and players, Andrew Neave and Adam Maher.
One of the first times Paul Green’s name came up in one of my stories was March 25, 1992, when I referred to the fact the former State Colts star was close to first grade selection at Easts Tigers, but Lang had gone for the experience of Nick Muir, for a match against Valleys at Langlands Park. In July that year I reported that the Sydney Roosters had Green in their sights.
In August, Green was taken to hospital with a back injury he received scoring a try against Logan City. It was a fiery game, with Easts’ 20-12 victory giving the club the minor premiership. There were fears he would not be right for the finals, but he worked his way back to full fitness and helped the club make the Grand Final.
When he won the Rothmans Gold Medal in Brisbane in 1993, he shared the honour with tall Wests’ Panthers forward, Steve Mills. Green won the Sydney (ARL) Rothmans Medal outright, in 1995, finishing three points clear of Canberra’s David Furner on the tally board, and four points clear of future ‘Immortal’, Andrew Johns.
I travelled to Sydney for that that black tie function, and the headline in ‘The Courier-Mail’ the next day read: ‘Honours to Alf’s sparring partner’.
The story read: ‘Broncos’ halfback, Allan ‘Alfie’ Langer effectively surrendered the Rothmans Medal to Cronulla’s Paul Green with one wayward punch at ANZ Stadium on July 15. On that fateful day in round 16, Langer and Green tangled in back-play, with Langer finishing with a broken bone in the hand, after taking umbrage at what he regarded as an illegality by Green. The hand injury, and then a leg injury at training, sidelined Langer for five of the last six matches of the season.”
Langer finished with 17 points on the Rothmans Tally Board, while Green won with 24. Green said he played his best football of the season in the run home to the finals when Cronulla won eight matches in a row, including the match against the Broncos.
At Cronulla, Green was part of a Sharks’ backline that former Welsh Rugby Union and British Lions Union and League star, Allan Bateman described as the best he played, with or against, in either rugby code.
The last time I interviewed Green, as a sports journalist for News Limited, was following Wynnum-Manly’s 20-10 defeat of Redcliffe in the 2012 Intrust Super Cup Grand Final at Suncorp Stadium, giving the Seagulls back-to-back premiership triumphs under Green’s coaching. That Wynnum side included future Cowboys’ 2015 Grand Final hero, Jake Granville.
At the 2012 Queensland Cup decider I caught up with John Lang, who was so proud that Green had developed into a fine coach, not that he was surprised, with John predicting a bright future for Green, in the NRL.
I covered the 2012 NRL Grand Final between Melbourne and the Bulldogs a week later, and then packed my bags for retirement, a fortnight after that.
My wife, Marie and I attended the 2013 NRL Grand Final in Sydney, with the Roosters defeating Manly 26-18 in a classic match, with Trent Robinson the Roosters’ coach and Green a member of his staff.
Marie and I were in France on holidays when the Cowboys claimed their maiden premiership under Green’s coaching in 2015. Like many league fans, I have watched the conclusion to that match numerous times, nearly as many times as Newcastle’s on-the-bell win over Manly in the 1997 ARL Grand final.
I covered that 1997 ARL Grand Final for ‘The Courier-Mail’, after covering the Super League decider a week earlier, when Green’s Cronulla side lost to the Broncos at Brisbane’s ANZ Stadium. Green and Craig Greenhill, Wynnum boys through and through, were teammates in that Cronulla side, and it was so sad to hear Craig struggle to get the words out, during a radio interview, following Paul’s passing on August 11, 2022.
When I think of Paul Green the man, I think of someone passionate about football and the Wynnum and Manly communities; a super intelligent bloke who did not suffer fools. He could fire up pretty quickly, and speak his mind. I was on the receiving end of a couple of minor ‘serves’, over things I wrote, but he never held a grudge.
But I also recall a bloke with a great sense of humour, and a great sense of fun.
On one of my trips to Auckland for a Broncos’ match against the Warriors, I was invited to tag along with some of the support staff – including great mates, ‘Alfie’ and ‘Greenie’ – to a pub, where there was karaoke. Paul got up and sang what I think was one of his signature songs, ‘Ring of Fire’, and he brought the house down. He put so much energy into the rendition, and from all reports, fancied himself as a singer.
He never fancied himself as a football star or a super coach. He just gave his all, on the field and off it, and that’s all anyone can ask of anyone, in any area of life.
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Thank you Steve great story and so much detail on Paul Green that I have not read before and the tremendous history he contributed to the game and his own achievements gained through his career. It somehow seems his life as a passionate supporter of the game had gone unnoticed in some respect.
Having read all this I find it an absolutely unbelievable difficult to reason why he decided his life on earth was finished. There has got to be a personal reason that Paul Green found far too difficult to face or overcome. Far more personal and overwhelming not only for himself but for those of his family to make a life taking result.
I think it has be a big wake up call for a lot of many who have gained such achievements in life and who are now or have approached the end of their career not knowing how to structure their lives going forward.
The daily routine of what they did is so embedded in their minds the thought of it being no longer must be so difficult to adjust and reinvent the person themselves. The working environment of a TEAM for so long and under the code of doing everything together as a TEAM and then it is no longer and your are a lone single leaf bobbing around on the great big ocean of life with no land in sight must be terrible.
There is no reason for such loss.