{"id":133475,"date":"2021-09-23T21:43:41","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T21:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=133475"},"modified":"2021-09-23T22:57:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T22:57:58","slug":"origin-great-slater-wins-race-to-coach-maroons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=133475","title":{"rendered":"Origin great Slater wins race to coach Maroons"},"content":{"rendered":"

State of Origin<\/a> great Billy Slater<\/a> has won the race to coach Queensland from 2022, with confirmation he'll take charge for the next two years.<\/p>\n

Slater replaces Paul Green in the role, after the former Cowboys premiership coach told the QRL he was keen to pursue a return to club coaching, opting not to take up an option that would have given him a second year at the helm of the Maroons.<\/p>\n

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Green's Maroons<\/a> lost 2-1 to NSW this year in a campaign that was at times considered a disaster.<\/p>\n

They had lost the series by the end of Game Two on the back of two demoralising scorelines.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

Slater, now 38, played 31 Origin games for Queensland and was an integral part of the Maroons dominance from 2006 onwards.<\/p>\n

"I feel very honoured to have this role put in front of me," Slater told TODAY.<\/p>\n

"It comes with a lot of responsibility. But like yourself, Karl, I grew up being inspired by this team and then I got the opportunity to become one of those players and now I get the chance to help guide and shape our current and future Queenslanders to go on."<\/p>\n

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Slater explained that he wasn't worried by his lack of coaching experience, his answer leaving the door ajar for supercoach Wayne Bennett to take on a mentoring role next year.<\/p>\n

"It's something that I'm comfortable with," he said.<\/p>\n

"I'm not teaching medicine. I'm not trying to build a rocket or anything like that. I'm coaching football and it is what I know best. I have been involved in the game since I was a 4-year-old little boy.<\/p>\n

\"Origin<\/p>\n

"I have coached individuals and at the Melbourne Storm and also within Queensland. No, I'm looking forward to the challenge. I think it is really important for me to do it my way. <\/p>\n

"Yes, we are going to assemble a strong coaching staff around me but it is important that I go in there and do it my way and not try and be someone else that has been successful or someone else that has coached Queensland."<\/p>\n

Incoming QRL chief executive officer Rohan Sawyer said it was an easy decision to appoint Slater.<\/p>\n

"Once we determined it was in our best interests to secure a coach who could provide leadership to a young playing group over multiple series, Billy was the stand out option," Sawyer said.<\/p>\n

"We're delighted to secure the services of such a passionate Queenslander, and we're now very much looking forward to planning for the future and providing as much support for Billy as possible to help set him up for success."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State of Origin great Billy Slater has won the race to coach Queensland from 2022, with confirmation he'll take charge for the next two years. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133477,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133475\/revisions\/133477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}