The race for the vacant Knights coaching position looks to be a three-horse race between Justin Holbrook, Dean Young and Blake Green after one of the leading contenders, Willie Peters, opted against throwing his hat into the ring.
Peters, who has carved out a successful start to his head coaching career with Hull KR in the Super League, was encouraged to apply by the committee set up by Newcastle to identify a replacement for Adam O’Brien.
Former premiership-winning coach Michael Hagan joins Knights CEO Peter Parr and chairman Geoff Coburn on the subcommittee, alongside Parr’s successor as football boss Chris James and board member Tony Price.
Peters’ agent, Braith Anasta, conformed on Tuesday night that Peters wanted to focus on growing as a coach in the Super League before taking on an NRL gig.
“He has taken a team from last to first, won coach of the year last year, he is going to get coach of the year this year, they are coming first, they are four points from second,” Anasta said on Fox League.
“Us going through a process where we don’t know where we are going to land, with a number of candidates, can distract the process of winning a premiership back there and we just don’t think it is worth it.”
Josh Hannay has wasted little time laying the groundwork for Gold Coast’s new era, clearing out the majority of Des Hasler’s coaching staff.
Titans assistant coaches Brett White, Jim Lenihan and Michael Monaghan will not return to the battling NRL club in 2026.
Transition and NRL assistant coach Brad Davis will remain on staff, while retiring playmaker Kieran Foran will take up a specialist coaching role as planned.
It’s a signal of intent from rookie head coach Hannay, who last week signed a three-year deal to become Hasler’s successor
The club does not yet have a firm timeline for announcing the trio’s successors.
Lenihan had served on the Titans’ coaching staff since 2020 and was interim coach before Hasler’s arrival. White joined from Canberra in 2023 and has experience as an assistant in the NSW and Australian set-ups.
Josh Hannay (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Monaghan had joined the club after Hasler took charge for the 2024 season, having played under him at Manly in the 2000s.
“The Titans want to thank the trio for their commitment and contribution and wish them all the best in their future endeavours,” the club said in a statement.
Hannay will finish the season as an assistant coach at Cronulla before beginning his mission to spark the Titans, who have not won a finals game since 2010.
The Titans have made the top eight only twice since then and are on track to claim the wooden spoon in 2025.
To avoid finishing last on the ladder, they must defeat Wests Tigers on Saturday and hope 16th-placed Newcastle lose to Parramatta a day later.
Shibasaki pays price for boozy night before training
Brisbane players must decide whether they want to be title contenders or the subject of club “statements” about their off-field shenanigans.
Coach Michael Maguire wants it to be the former, of course, but star players Gehamat Shibasaki and Reece Walsh are testing his patience.
Queensland centre Shibasaki was dropped for the vital home clash with Melbourne on Thursday night after turning up to training on Monday still under the weather after a night on the grog.
The Tuesday statement that followed called it “a breach of Broncos team standards”.
Talismanic fullback Walsh, as only he can, posted a video to Snapchat where he was slurping from an unused toilet bowl he had recently installed. The “little drink”, as he called it, allegedly was also “a new form of recovery, to recover the muscles”.
The Broncos put out a statement on Monday about “a poor attempt at humour” and recommended nobody should try it at home.
When it comes to the litany of past rugby league atrocities, Walsh and Shibasaki are at the minor end of the scale.
We are not dealing with the infamous “pooh in a shoe” or “bubbler” sagas here.
Back in the bad old Broncos days of the 2020 wooden spoon, the club was putting out more statements than the White House. There was a joke getting around that if they had won as many games as they put out statements about player antics, the Broncos would have won the minor premiership.
Ahead of the clash with the Storm, which will decide whether they stay fourth, Maguire is after focus on the task at hand, not distractions from what will be a tough assignment.
“It’s obviously disappointing … and he’s made a mistake,” Maguire said of Shibasaki’s actions.
Gehamat Shibasaki takes on the Warriors. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“He understands that and he’s paid the price.”
The coach said the players were well aware of “the culture and expectations” he was building, and had been from the moment he arrived.
“Culture is everything, you’ve got to live by what you’re building,” Maguire added.
The coach, old school to the core, said the Walsh scenario was “a different one” and “unusual”, but insisted that his No.1 “needs to adjust” to the expectations that come with playing for the Broncos. He has let Walsh know that.
“Adjusting to society in this day and age is probably a bit different to what I’ve grown up in … but players of his calibre know how great an influence they can be, and sometimes it can reflect the wrong thing,” Maguire said.
Walsh, 23, is a unique character with his own brand of humour.
In May he was asked to front morning television before dawn to apologise for a TikTok post of him punching his best mate in the head. He made the point it was a joke, but the Broncos did not see it that way.
Walsh has kept his sense of humour. On Wednesday he had changed his Instagram head shot to an image of himself dressed up as a plumber.
All Maguire wants him to do is unveil all his attacking wares and ensure there are no leaks in defence against the Storm.
As for Shibasaki, he was training with the side on Wednesday.
“And getting flogged,” Maguire said with a sinister grin.
The coach just wants maximum focus and effort with no more distractions that threaten to flush the side’s title hopes away.
“Rugby league’s big up here, but we haven’t done anything yet. It’s about tomorrow night,” Maguire said.
with AAP