Brisbane great Chris Johns believes Kevin Walters should step back from his Queensland State of Origin role as he undertakes a rebuild of the battered Broncos.
Walters is understood to be finalising the terms of a contract with the Broncos board, having won the race to be the NRL club’s new head coach.
After a season in which the once-mighty Broncos slumped to their first wooden spoon in their 32-year history, Walters faces a mammoth task at Red Hill.
It’s unclear if Walters intends to lead the Maroons for this year’s Origin campaign in November before focusing fulltime on the Broncos job, but former teammate Johns doesn’t think that would be a good idea for the 52-year-old.
“Really the most mentally draining thing you can do is go through a State of Origin series. It absolutely saps every ounce of blood out of you. Every ounce of energy out of you,” Johns told AAP.
“It’s going to be a real challenge to try and juggle both but I really think it’ll probably be taken out of his hands.
“(QRL chairman) Bruce Hatcher is one of the smartest administrators in the game and I don’t think he’d be silly enough to not have some sort of involvement from Kevin, but to take on the full brunt of the responsibility of this year’s series?
“I think Kevvie’s going to want to do it, but I don’t think either the Broncos or the QRL will be keen for that to happen.
“So I’m sure there’s going to be some interesting discussions going forward.”
Former Queensland coaches Mal Meninga and Wayne Bennett have already been touted as possible replacements for this year’s series if Walters does quit the position.
Johns played alongside Walters throughout the Broncos’ glory days in the 1990s and has long advocated for the six-time premiership winner to be given the job at Red Hill.
An outspoken critic of the appointment of Anthony Seibold ahead of Walters in 2018, Johns feels Brisbane have the right man at the helm to get them off the NRL’s basement.
Reports Walters is assembling a coaching staff including former Gold Coast mentor John Cartwright and an attempt to lure Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy to the club as a coaching director were encouraging early indicators of Walters’ vision.
“Any club in the competition would want the services of Craig Bellamy coming in and overseeing their football department, if that eventuates,” Johns said.
“I think there’s a lot of work to be done there. There’s no way that’s a done deal.
“That’ll just progress and see what can happen and bring him in but also now that Kevin’s putting his team together … you’ll see when he starts making some announcements, you’re gonna have some special people around him that are going to really help provide the environment for this place to really flourish.”
