{"id":281226,"date":"2025-11-13T06:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281226\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T06:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T06:59:08","slug":"obrien-confirms-new-role-bulldogs-lock-in-staff-for-2026-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281226\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Brien confirms new role, Bulldogs lock in staff for 2026 – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> have confirmed the staff who will work alongside head coach Cameron Ciraldo<\/a> throughout the 2026 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

As previously reported, Adam O’Brien<\/a> will join as an assistant coach after he was axed by the Newcastle Knights<\/a> at the end of the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

It’s understood – although unconfirmed by the club – that he will be tasked with coaching the attack at Belmore despite the poor results the Knights had on that side of the ball throughout 2025.<\/p>\n

O’Brien, who was an assistant at the Melbourne Storm<\/a> and Sydney Roosters<\/a> before moving to the Hunter, has previously worked with many members of Canterbury’s squad.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have also confirmed Trent Elkin will join as Athletic performance and rehabilitation lead, while Michael Kulen steps into the attack analyst role.<\/p>\n

Elkin has worked in the NRL<\/a> – across multiple clubs and at the referees – over the last two decades, while Kulen has spent the last eight years at the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The club’s director of football Phil Gould took to social media to confirm the entire list of staff appointments for 2026, with Chad Randall<\/a> and Luke Vella<\/a> to continue in assistant coaching roles, Jason Taylor<\/a> to remain as the NSW Cup<\/a> coach, and other familiar names Mick Potter<\/a>, Josh Jackson<\/a>, Steve Turner<\/a> and Mark O’Meley<\/a> working across various pathway appointments.<\/p>\n

Head Coach
Cameron Ciraldo<\/a><\/p>\n

Chief of Staff
Adam Hartigan<\/p>\n

Assistant Coaches
Chad Randall<\/a>
Adam O’Brien<\/a>
Luke Vella<\/a><\/p>\n

Analysts
Mohammed Ali
Mick Kulen<\/p>\n

High Performance Manager
Travis Touma
NSW Cup Coach
Jason Taylor<\/a><\/p>\n

Academy Coach
Mick Potter<\/a><\/p>\n

Academy High Performance
Gurpreet Singh<\/p>\n

Jersey Flegg Coach
Josh Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n

SG Ball Coach
Steve Turner<\/a><\/p>\n

Harold Matthews Cup Coach
Mark O’Meley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canterbury Bulldogs have confirmed the staff who will work alongside head coach Cameron Ciraldo throughout the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-281226","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\/281226","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=281226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}