Paul Green (rugby league)

He played for Cronulla-Sutherland, North Queensland Cowboys, Sydney Roosters, Parramatta Eels and the Brisbane Broncos, winning the Rothmans Medal in 1995.

He captained the Queensland Colts before winning Brisbane Rugby League's Rothmans Medal in 1993 while playing for the Easts Tigers.

In 1994, Green followed his Easts' coach John Lang to Sydney's Cronulla-Sutherland, turning heads with the maturity and skill of his play at halfback.

At the end of the season, he was chosen as halfback in the return Test against New Zealand in September, but an injury kept him out of Australia's tour of Great Britain.

In 2000, Green fell out of favour with coach Tim Sheens who preferred the halves' partnership of Scott Prince and Noel Goldthorpe.

Green moved on to feeder club Wynnum Manly Seagulls in 2010, coaching them in the 2011 and 2012 Queensland Cups,[10] winning back-to-back premierships.

After trailing 30–0 in the early stages of the first half, Green said in the post match press conference that the team should not lick their wounds over the controversial call which ended their season as their start was not good enough to deserve the win.

The Cowboys beat the Melbourne Storm 32–12 in that match, booking their place in the 2015 NRL Grand Final against the Brisbane Broncos.

This made Green the first coach in history to defeat the Brisbane Broncos in a Grand Final, a team which had a perfect record going into the game with 6 wins from 6 attempts.

[citation needed] In December 2015, Green was offered the vacant head coaching role of the Queensland State of Origin side.

In week one of the finals the club lost to the Melbourne Storm 16–10 before defeating the Brisbane Broncos 26–20 in a 90-minute thriller in the Semi-Finals in a match rated the best of the season.

After opening the 2017 season with two consecutive golden point victories against Canberra and Brisbane, Green was courted by the NZRL to become assistant coach of the New Zealand Rugby League Test Team for the 2017 World Cup.

The Cowboys limped into the 2017 Finals series in 8th place after an injury crisis saw co-captains Matthew Scott and Johnathan Thurston ruled out early in the season.

Green was widely praised for getting North Queensland into their second grand final in the space of three seasons; at one stage, in rounds 23–24, he had 17 players out with injury.

In February 2020, Green led the Cowboys' to their second NRL Nines championship, after they defeated the St George Illawarra Dragons in the final.

[17][18] In game two of the series, Queensland were defeated 26–0 by New South Wales at Suncorp Stadium putting Green under intense media scrutiny.

[19] Queensland came back to win the game three, with Green's side defeating New South Wales 20–18 at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.