The former Brisbane Broncos<\/a> coach is expected to use his Red Hill ties to convince superstar prop Payne Haas<\/a> not to depart from the Kangaroos in this year’s Ashes series.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to explain to those players that are contemplating (defecting), I totally understand their situation but let’s get the Kangaroos opportunity in front of them and see where they’re at with that,” Walters told the Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n Haas expressed his aspirations of donning the Samoan logo earlier this year, and revealed he would make a definitive call on his representative future after this year’s State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n While no official call has been made, the international heavyweights are at risk of losing their Australian enforcer, after Samoa<\/a> approached both him and Queensland Maroons<\/a> star Tino Fa’asuamaleaui<\/a>, in a bid to convince the pair to defect ahead of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n While many believe Haas’ cultural ties will lead him to Samoa<\/a>, the ARLC has faith that his close ties with Walters will keep him in green and gold, after the Broncos great convinced him to remain in Brisbane a few years ago following a release request.<\/p>\n Payne Haas<\/a> is the most destructive prop on the planet, and while Walters admitted the Kangaroos have “plenty of depth”, none can quite match the ferocity that the NSW Blues<\/a> star can bring to the international stage.<\/p>\n
![\"BRISBANE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2206199237-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/)
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 21: Payne Haas<\/a> of the Broncos celebrates after scoring a try during the round three NRL<\/a> match between Brisbane Broncos<\/a> and North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> at Suncorp Stadium, on March 21, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Kevin Walters was formally announced as the new Australia Kangaroos coach on Wednesday, and it seems…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-17167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}