Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is reportedly in the running to replace outgoing Knights coach Adam O’Brien in 2026 after joining a hit list of potential targets.

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The Sydney Morning Herald reported Cheika is on a short list of potential candidates the Knights have devised in their search for a new coach after O’Brien and the club mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the season.

O’Brien will coach his 145th and final game at the Knights against the Eels on Sunday, while the club continues to search for his successor in time for pre-season in November.

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The club tasked chairman Geoff Coburn, board member Tony Price, incoming chief executive Peter Parr, incoming director of football Chris James and former premiership-winning coach Michael Hagan with finding O’Brien’s successor.

The Knights have reportedly reached out to Cheika to gauge his interest in coming on board as the new coach, with a formal interview the next stage if he is keen on the role.

Given two candidates to replace O’Brien, Leeds coach Brad Arthur and Hull KR mentor Willie Peters are busy vying for a premiership in the Super League, Cheika is likely to get an interview.

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Michael Cheika is expected to get an interview with the Knights.Source: Getty Images

Cheika is likely to join a list of candidates including Roosters assistant and former Titans coach Justin Holbrook, Knights assistant Blake Green, Dragons assistant Dean Young, former Sharks coach and Tigers assistant John Morris and former Dragons coach Paul McGregor.

Cheika has shown interest in coaching in the NRL in the past and recently finished a stint at rugby club Leicester.

Cheika is still committed to coaching Lebanon at the next Rugby League World Cup and the 58-year-old has been backed by Immortal and Knights legend Andrew Johns.

“I would love to see you as a head coach – I think you’d nail it – but in the right group with the right support staff in the front office and people around you,” Johns told Cheika on Channel 9’s Freddy and The Eighth.

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Cheika is open to the idea of becoming the first NRL coach to come from a rugby union background.

“I think that challenge, if you think about it, hasn’t really been met,” Cheika said.

“Alan Jones had a crack at it way back. It hasn’t been done with success. Many league coaches have come over to rugby and been successful there – maybe not as head coaches, although I think they could.

“To master that challenge, especially being an Aussie kid where league is such a big sport and I grew up playing the sport, I think it would be a huge challenge. I’ve been back here now for maybe six weeks or so, getting my feet on the ground and deciding what I’m gonna get up to next.”

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Cheika believes he could make an impact with rugby league players if given the opportunity.

“I’d push them to whatever’s required to win, because that’s the objective,” he said during the week.

“You’re gonna be talking to a dressing room of 30-odd people and there could be seven or eight different personality traits in there. You’ve got to try and code your messages so that they all understand in the different ways people think.

“Sometimes you’ve got to go hard and sometimes you’ve got to give a cuddle – but at all costs, they are your team.”