{"id":350644,"date":"2025-12-16T00:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350644\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:47:10","slug":"kevin-walters-provides-update-on-extension-talks-ahead-of-2026-rlwc-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350644\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters provides update on extension talks ahead of 2026 RLWC – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Walters<\/a> has provided an update on his status as head coach of the Australian Kangaroos ahead of the upcoming 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a> (RLWC).<\/p>\n

Appointed as Mal Meninga’s successor, Walters only agreed to a three-match contract with Australia<\/a>, having been unceremoniously sacked by the Brisbane Broncos<\/a> at the conclusion of the 2024 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

Leading the Kangaroos to a 3-0 whitewash over England<\/a> to win the 2025 Ashes Series<\/a>, the coach now has his sights set on leading the national team at the upcoming 2026 RLWC as he looks to lead the country to another title.<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0The Sydney Morning Herald,<\/a> Walters confirmed that he has yet to begin talks with ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys and NRL<\/a> CEO Andrew Abdo about extending his time but hopes to remain in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I want to continue on coaching Australia<\/a>, it’s been a great initiation into the international arena, and next year with the World Cup here in Australia<\/a> in makes a lot of sense,” the former Brisbane Broncos<\/a> head coach said.<\/p>\n

“But we’ll get through Christmas, enjoy that, and look forward to an even better 2026.<\/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.<\/p>\n

“That’s 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’re always improving all the time.<\/p>\n

“Santa brings lots of joys, he’s delivering lots of presents, so hopefully there’ll be a little gift for ‘Kevvie’ Walters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters has provided an update on his status as head coach of the Australian Kangaroos ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-350644","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\/350644","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=350644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}