In revelling from the 3-0 whitewash of England across October and November, Grant issued a plea for Australia\u2019s World Cup coach to be locked in sooner rather than later, with Kevin Walters unsigned beyond the Ashes series.<\/p>\n
The Queensland Maroons hooker felt for such a big showcase on home soil, the Kangaroos needed sufficient time to plan if they were to lift the silverware for the 13th time, a luxury which was not afforded to Walters and his staff after the former Brisbane Broncos mentor was only confirmed on a three-game deal in late July.<\/p>\n
Walters harbours a close rapport with many of the Kangaroos players, including strike centre Kotoni Staggs who suggested he would confirm his availability for Australia rather than Tonga if he remained in the job.<\/p>\n
Leading prop Tino Fa\u2019asuamaleaui is also yet to lock in whether he represents Australia or Samoa at the World Cup, with Walters adamant he would \u201csupport him in any way, whichever way he goes\u201d but was yet to have a conversation with him about his intentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone\u2019s backing Kevvie, if they give him the opportunity now, then he can start planning. We\u2019ve got the World Cup, it\u2019s a massive thing and Australia is a prestigious team to play for,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s put some things in place now, let some people plan, and have a fair chunk of time to make it the best possible World Cup that we can. The way Kev brought us together quickly and really coached to bring our strengths to the table I really enjoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walters confirmed on Friday he was yet to launch extension talks with Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V\u2019landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo, but would expect to have those discussions in the new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I want to continue on coaching Australia, it\u2019s been a great initiation into the international arena, and next year with the World Cup here in Australia in makes a lot of sense. But we\u2019ll get through Christmas, enjoy that, and look forward to an even better 2026,\u201d Walters said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel the most important thing is getting a really good relationship with players, and letting them be the people they want to be, and let them express themselves in a way they want to play. That\u2019s my big asset as a coach, my connection with the players and allowing them the free space to play their style of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I a better coach right now than 12 months ago? Yes certainly, but we\u2019re always improving all the time. Santa brings lots of joys, he\u2019s delivering lots of presents, so hopefully there\u2019ll be a little gift for Kevvie Walters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In revelling from the 3-0 whitewash of England across October and November, Grant issued a plea for Australia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-342738","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\/342738","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=342738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}