The VERY surprising things NRL fans don’t know about Paul Green after footy legend’s tragic death

Paul Green will be remembered as one of rugby league’s great players and coaches, but there was so much more to the man who had a constant thirst for learning.

Green, who died suddenly on Thursday aged just 49, was one of the great thinkers of the game and his astute knowledge and meticulous preparation placed him at the pinnacle of the NRL playing and coaching ranks.

He was named the 1993 Rothmans player of the year in the Brisbane Rugby league, the 1995 Rothmans player of the league in the NSWRL and steered NRL battlers North Queensland to a premiership in 2015. 

‘It took him one year to work that level of rugby league out and win that in a competition with Allan Langer, Ricky Stuart and Andrew Johns,’ Cronulla and Queensland teammate Mat Rogers told the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘What does that tell you?’ 

But there were so many additional layers to the man.

Green was fluent in multiple languages and played multiple musical instruments.

Green learned to fly when he was just 20 and then got his helicopter licence 26 years later

After his NRL playing days he turned to boxing and was a more than handy pugilist.

He was at home on the golf course and often put his mates to shame when it came to fishing as well. 

When Green was just 20 years old in 1992, he received his commercial pilot’s licence from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Another 26 years later he completed his rotary wing licence through Townsville Helicopters, proudly boasting on LinkedIn that he had ‘finally attained my helicopter licence’.

Green was at home on the sea and would often post photos of his conquests to Facebook

After his playing days were done, Green moved quickly to shore up the next stage of his rugby league career by completing his Grad Cert App Science (Sports Coaching) through The University of Queensland.

His studies would not end there. After delivering a premiership to the North Queensland Cowboys faithful, Green enrolled in further academic endeavours through Harvard Business School, completing his Certificate in Management Excellence.

In his time away from rugby league coaching after standing down from the Queensland Maroons position last year he worked as a leadership and high-performance coach with national engineering design, construction and land development company BMD Group.

He even got to play in a Queensland Masters cricket side in 2017 that included his good mates and former Aussie cricketers Andy Symonds and Michael Kasprowicz.

Green and Rogers spent the past weekend in Sydney at a Cronulla players reunion. The two were teammates at the Sharks for three seasons from 1995 to 1997. 

Paul Green (left) at an under-7’s sign on day at the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in 1979

During the 1997 Queensland Super League season, they were roommates before spending two years together in the Maroons State of Origin team. The dual international said he and Green played golf on Friday before watching the Sharks beat St George Illawarra. 

‘Even last week,’ Rogers said of the Cronulla old-boys reunion they both attended, ‘Greeny was on another level,’ he said.

‘I like to think I can read the game pretty well, but something happened in the game and he picked it apart in an instant and explained why it had happened.

Green and Symonds were great mates and they got to play together for the Queensland Bulls Masters at the Goldfield Ashes in Charters Towers, west of Townsville in North Queensland

‘He had a rare footballing brain and while he was tough, that probably helped him thrive at his size, too. He had to be smarter than the rest of us, and he was.’

Roosters coach Trent Robinson also marvelled at the intelligence Green possessed.

‘I loved working with Paul for his incredible football mind, passion and humour,’ Robinson told the Herald.

‘As good a person as he was a coach, I enjoyed the time Greeny and I had as mates coaching against each other and sharing our views on the game in the years that followed.’