BY BEN

Last Sunday the identical looking brothers*, Chris and Shane Walker stood on the sidelines side by side as they coached the Ipswich Jets to an NRL state championship a week after winning the Queensland Cup.

While some pundits waffled on about the Walker brothers radical kicking and ball playing tactics, many NRL CEOs were quick to notice the real story. Another dynamic family coaching duo.

Broncos CEO Paul White spoke to the media shortly after the Jets victory. “Of course we’ve all seen the success of Chris and Brad Scott as AFL coaches and then you only have to look to the NFL, one of the biggest competitions in the world, where you have twin brothers Jim and John Harbaugh facing off against each other as head coaches in the 2014 Superbowl. The Walker brothers look like they’re cut from the same cloth. It’s not hard to see why all these teams are so successful.”

After a tough year for the Tigers, CEO Justin Pascoe was quick to announce the sacking of Jason Taylor on Monday and the appointment of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen as the new joint head coaches for the club.

“We’ve had a lot of disunity at the club this year, so we are hoping that apart from being really successful twins, they’ll also be able to instill the family values that made them so famous during their days on the sitcom Full House.”

When asked if he felt the twin’s very public battles with drugs and various health problems as well as their lack of knowledge of rugby league could backfire on the club, he replied “He didn’t think so.”

Another club keen on testing the new twins coaching philosophy was the Newcastle Knights, with new coach Nathan Brown announcing the hiring of Fred and George Weasley as assistant coaches for the club in 2016.

“Well they’re both Gryffindor, so we know they are brave which is really important. They’ve also obviously won a Quidditch Cup so have plenty of big game experience and know what it takes to get to the top”.

Probably the biggest rumour to sweep through the NRL yesterday was that last year’s Grand Final coaches Michael Maguire and Des Hasler’s positions were under fire.

An influential NRL manager who couldn’t be named said Joel and Benji Madden were the hottest potential coaches in town at the moment and all the big clubs were scrambling to organise meetings with them as soon as possible.

With both men having plenty of coaching experience on The Voice and having publicly watched at least one game of rugby league last year they were clearly the most sought after of the new wave of twin coaches this off season. The Sportress asked both South Sydney Rabbitohs and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs for comment but both declined. Stay tuned.

*Apparently they’re not twins. You can’t tell from looking at them but. I had to Wikipedia it!