{"id":281153,"date":"2025-11-13T06:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281153\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T06:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:02:08","slug":"it-could-be-risky-michael-cheika-reveals-sydney-roosters-coaching-twist-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281153\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It could be risky\u2019: Michael Cheika reveals Sydney Roosters coaching twist for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wallabies, NSW Waratahs and Argentina rugby union coach Michael Cheika has spoken about his new NRL role at the Sydney Roosters<\/a>, explaining he won\u2019t be a \u2018normal assistant\u2019 for Trent Robinson.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging conversation with Josh Mansour on the Unscripted podcast<\/a>, the 58-year-old explained his 2026 position with the Roosters will be the first time in his coaching career he hasn\u2019t been the man in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a head coach, in fact the only time I\u2019ve ever taken an assistant or consultant role before was once with the Roosters after the 2019 Rugby World Cup,\u201d Cheika said.<\/p>\n

Whilst best known for his time in rugby union, Cheika explained he grew up as a \u2018league kid\u2019 and went to a rugby league school in Sydney\u2019s Eastern Suburbs.<\/p>\n

MORE: Roosters star Victor Radley set for shock early comeback from 10-game ban<\/a><\/p>\n

Significantly, Cheika has also known Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve known Trent since 2011 when he was coaching in France and I was coaching at Stade Fran\u00e7ais (Paris rugby union team), we\u2019ve had a relationship since then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Are teams going to be interested in something different?\u2019<\/p>\n

As for why he was interested in making the switch to club rugby league?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cheika explained he felt the time was right after finishing a one-season stint with English rugby giants Leicester\u2014but finding the \u2018right\u2019 rugby league club was a different story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing me wanting to come and cross over (as a rugby league coach), but are teams going to be interested in looking at something different?\u201d he posed, confirming he interviewed with the Parramatta Eels<\/a> in 2024 and also received an initial call from the Newcastle Knights<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had interest from league teams before, (but often) they\u2019re thinking \u2018it could be risky because this guy\u2019s from a different sport\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheika explained that situations like his new role with the Roosters only work when the person in charge has a clear picture of what they want in their assistants and their team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Trent came and saw me, he saw something that I could help bring to them\u2014and I felt that I could contribute to them as well in what they want to achieve (in 2026),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all happened pretty quickly, a matter of a couple of conversations, I didn\u2019t really need much convincing, I think it\u2019s a great opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I won\u2019t take on the role of a normal assistant coach\u2019<\/p>\n

Asked specifically about his responsibilities at the Roosters next season, Cheika explained he\u2019d likely be working predominantly with the forwards on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Robinson) knows my coaching strengths, so he knows I won\u2019t take on the role of a normal assistant coach. There\u2019s different things that I\u2019ve got that he\u2019ll want to use, alongside the other assistants that are there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his NRL commitments, Cheika also spoke glowingly of his time as head coach of the\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0national rugby league team, a position he\u2019s held since 2020 and has already seen him take the Cedars to the 2022 World Cup in England with a squad that included Mitchell Moses, Adam Doueihi, Josh Mansour and Jack Kiraz.<\/p>\n

He says plans are already afoot for the 2026 World Cup in Australia and PNG.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing everything I can to get a match played in Lebanon in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only will it be great as far as preparation is concerned for a lot of the squad who aren\u2019t playing NRL finals, culturally it will just be an unbelievable experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wallabies, NSW Waratahs and Argentina rugby union coach Michael Cheika has spoken about his new NRL role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-281153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281153","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=281153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}