‘I want to coach again': Walters responds to Titans link amid brutal Des Hasler contract clause
Kevin Walters has addressed being linked to replacing under-pressure Titans coach Des Hasler.
Walters was brutally sacked by the Broncos last October just 12 months after taking the club the grand final.
The 57-year-old admitted he wants to coach in the NRL again but said it was 'disrespectful' to talk about the Gold Coast role given Hasler was still in it.
'I've always said that I want to coach again at some stage but I think it's a bit disrespectful to Des and the Titans,' Walters said.
'We're into Round 10, I think Des has got a job to do there. Sure some things haven't gone right for them this year but I'm sure he can turn it around and the Titans can turn it around.
'Do I want to coach again? Yes, I've said that openly lots of times. But when the time is right and the team is right so now I just feel like it's just a bit disrespectful to be speaking about a coach that… and I've walked in Des' shoes as a coach.
'I think that Des more than anyone needs the respect that he needs to be given… he's only 12 months into the job. I feel like people in the game are pulling the trigger pretty early.'
Hasler is facing the sack with his Titans needing to win 12 of their remaining 16 games this season to ensure the veteran coach avoids the axe in 2025.
It has been revealed that Hasler's three-year contract has performance clauses that require the Gold Coast to play finals in 2025, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The journalist who broke the story, Michael Carayannis, revealed what those clauses entailed.
'Massive news … He originally signed a three-year deal but there's clauses in his deal and one of those is a top eight clause,' Carayannis said.
'That is if they don't make the top eight this year, the Titans are under no obligation to keep him at the club next yet.
'There's another element to it and that's if when they are mathematically no chance of playing finals footy, they can split immediately.'
The Titans have won just two of their opening eight games and look next to no chance of playing finals for just the third time since 2011.
The number of premiership points required to play finals varies from season to season, but 14 wins guarantees a team a spot in September.
The Titans snuck in with 10 wins in 2021 but the Broncos missed out on 13 wins the very next year and that wasn't even on point differential.
Hasler could reportedly be sacked this as soon as his side are eliminated from finals contention and there won't be any financial repercussions for the club.
Fox League's James Hooper believes the Titans are 'gearing up' to make a big decision with their coach.
'It's a results driven business. His winning strike rate since he's been there hasn't been great,' Hooper said.
'I think that the way it's shaping up and the way people are talking around the game, I think the Titans are gearing up to make a tough decision.
'If I'm the Gold Coast, I'd be giving a little bit more time as I do think he has runs on the board, but from talking to people around the league, it is an issue.'
Carayannis called the Titans' decision to add the clauses as 'shrewd management' given Hasler's history with former clubs the Bulldogs and Sea Eagles.
With both clubs, Hasler has ended up in monetary disputes.
'We've seen Des Hasler end up in the courtroom with his past two clubs and it hasn't ended very well,' Carayannis said.
'This is a way to safeguard them and if Des has success, well he gets next year. If not, it's a decision the club has control over and that's not something that has happened around Des at the past couple of clubs.'
The 64-year-old two-time premiership-winning coach has the second worst winning record of any full-time Titans coach except for Garth Brennan.
He'll have the worst if the Titans lose their next two games, against the Knights and Raiders.
Hasler is only 10 games shy of hitting the 500-game mark after stints at Sea Eagles and Bulldogs before arriving on the Gold Coast.
Wayne Bennett, Tim Sheens, Craig Bellamy, Ricky Stuart and Brian Smith are the only coaches to have overseen more NRL games than Hasler.
The NRL360 panel discussed what coaches the Titans could look at if they do end up moving on from Hasler.
'It's a tough call because they signed a two-time premiership winning coach and they haven't improved. That's the concern Are they any better than when he took over? I don't think they are,' Carayannis said.
'They've gone for rookie coaches. They had Justin Holbrook and Garth Brennan. They've gone for experienced coaches in Neil Henry and John Cartwright. And now they've gone for a premiership winner in Des. None of them except John Cartwright have had success.
'The best young coaches at the moment that aren't coaching in the NRL are Ben Hornby, Willie Peters, Matt King, Dean Young, Josh Hannay.
'That's where I would go.'
Hooper meanwhile, raised another name.
'Kevin Walters. That is a name that automatically springs to mind for me because he's a Queenslander,' Hooper said.
'It's a bit tricky because he works here at Fox League but if they were to draw up a hit list, I'm thinking his name would be right at the top of it.
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Once he starts, there is no going back. "It was like stepping off a cliff. All of a sudden from that point, you were in freefall and the only endpoint is an amputated leg," paramedic Rohan says. The moment the saw snaps With general anaesthesia not being possible, Valdas is knocked out with ketamine. Jo can't see the leg, so he opts to do the surgery with bare hands, so he can feel what he's doing. The velcro tourniquets don't work under water, but he improvises using ratchet straps. Then he starts the procedure. He cuts away the muscles of the thigh, "leaving the tremendously strong femur". "We are trained to saw through this using a Gigli saw — a fine wire which has got sharp serrations on it," he says. "It's very light, which is why we favour it. But it's also pretty delicate. "And in this case, it broke." Jo's heart drops. Fortunately he manages to break through the rest of the femur. Within seconds Valdas is free. Jo helped Valdas onto the stretcher, where he was put on a mechanical CPR machine. ( Supplied ) "Suddenly, he came backwards into my arms. I was waiting for a gush of blood, but there wasn't," he says. "The entire procedure, although it felt a long time to me, only took about two minutes." Crews haul Valdas out of the water and up a rock face. As Arvydas watches, he is devastated. "The colour of his skin, and the body … my diagnosis was Valdas is dead," he says. He returns to his camp and is silent for several minutes. He only tells his friends to pray for Valdas. The second stage of the rescue Everyone is aware that the amputation doesn't guarantee Valdas's survival. After 24 hours in the water, there is an "extremely high chance" of hypothermic cardiac arrest. Initially Valdas responds well, but then he starts to crash. He stops breathing, so the paramedics put him on a ventilator. Then his heart stops beating. "There's a little part of you that thinks that we killed him as his rescuers," Rohan says. Arvydas notices that no one makes eye contact with him. He asks the rescue crew if Valdas is dead. Arvydas Rudokas was one of the Lithuanian rafters on the trip. ( Australian Story: Tom Hancock ) "I couldn't say yes, but I definitely couldn't say no," Rohan says. Valdas is hooked up to a mechanical CPR machine before he is winched up to the chopper. By the time he arrives at hospital in Hobart, the machine has been keeping his heart beating for 90 minutes. "If your heart stops beating on the side of the Franklin River," Rohan says, "Except that Valdas died of a hypothermic cardiac arrest, and it's one of the really unique ways where you actually have a chance." Because hypothermia slows the body's systems down so much, Jo says, humans can survive "quite long periods of not breathing or very little heart activity". Six rescuers were on the ground with Valdas. ( Supplied ) The last hymn you hear before heaven or hell A paramedic has called ahead to alert the hospital that Valdas urgently needs to go on a heart-lung bypass machine, called ECMO, if he is to survive. The ECMO machine warms and oxygenates his blood outside his body and then pumps it back in, until they can restart his heart. Valdas stays on the machine in a coma for four days. As he wakes, he hears a hymn playing over and over in his head. "The last hymn you hear before ending up in heaven, or in hell," he says. "After the hymn I open my eyes and see white — a white ceiling above. I was waking up in the ICU ward." Valdas regained consciousness in hospital. ( Supplied ) While doctors, nurses and paramedics are overjoyed, there is concern he has suffered brain damage from the accident. Jurgita Rakauskaite-Stanwix, a member of the Hobart Lithuanian community, comes in to help with translation. She holds his hand and translates for doctors as they undertake tests to assess his neurological state. On the second day, Valdas surprises everyone when he speaks in English. "He said, 'I'm survivor!'" Jurgita says. "I was in tears. Nurses were in tears. It's just such a beautiful moment. And he is. He is a survivor." Before long, Valdas meets the man who amputated his leg in the wilderness. Valdas meets his rescuers in hospital. ( Supplied ) Jo also works as a trauma specialist, and becomes Valdas's treating doctor. "I felt like I had to apologise. And he too was quite emotional," the doctor says. "We both looked at his leg, and looked at each other, and said, 'I'm sorry, this is the way it is.'" Valdas knows the amputation was the right call. "Otherwise I would still be stuck there to this day. I would have two legs, but I would still be over there," he says. 'Life is a beautiful thing' In late January, Valdas returned home to Lithuania's capital Vilnius. His sister Rasa is helping in his recovery. "This accident has given me the understanding that in life, everything is possible. Every challenge can be overcome," she says. When Australian Story visited Valdas in May, he was walking on crutches. Now, he's learning to walk again with a prosthesis. Australian Story met Valdas in Lithuania. ( Australian Story: Tom Hancock ) "I survived. I endured. That's the greatest joy," he says. "As for the leg, that's not a problem. "The main thing is being alive and life is a beautiful thing." Arvydas says his friend was a legend with two legs, and is now a "double legend". "It doesn't matter. Broken leg. Cut leg. But alive," he says. A lot went wrong for Valdas, but a lot went his way, too. His thick wetsuit kept him warm. He was wearing a life jacket — without it, Ace believes he "probably would have got sucked under the rock". If it had rained even a few millimetres, the river could have risen and drowned him. The marathon rescue involved two helicopters, 500 kilograms of gear and a record-breaking 57 winches. And, communication problems which dogged the rescuers were helped when an AMSA jet was flown overhead later in the rescue to provide critical radio communications. Valdas is grateful for those who saved his life. "The Australian people were fantastic. It brings tears to my eyes when I remember their care," he says. "If it had happened in a place other than Australia, heaven knows what would have happened to me." Valdas and his friends in Lithuania. ( Australian Story: Tom Hancock ) A vow to finish what he started Valdas now has the "crazy idea" to return to the Franklin River in 2026 and finish the journey that changed his life forever. "Because that incident interrupted our expedition, the Franklin River venture remained unfinished," he says. "I don't know whether anyone has ever gone rafting with a prosthesis." Arvydas would be at his side — and their rafting party may include a new member. Jo has formed a strong bond with Valdas. "Valdas is a tremendously strong, independent, accomplished person," he says. "This idea that Valdas might want to come back and do the Franklin doesn't surprise me one little bit. "And I'd love to do that trip with him." Watch Australian Story's 'The River' part 1, 8:00pm Monday June 23, on ABCTV and ABC iview . 'The River' part 2, on Monday July 7. Credits:
