{"id":575051,"date":"2026-03-30T22:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575051\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:32:10","slug":"png-chiefs-coach-willie-peters-to-target-cameron-munster-nathan-cleary-and-isaah-yeo-nrl-360-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575051\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG Chiefs coach Willie Peters to target Cameron Munster, Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo, NRL 360 interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

A day after being confirmed as head coach of the PNG Chiefs, Willie Peters has now set his sights on three of the best players the NRL has to offer.<\/p>\n

Securing Peters (Head Coach), Michael Chammas (GM of Football) and Liam Ayoub (Head of Recruitment) over the past few months, the Chiefs’ attention has now turned to building their foundation roster.<\/p>\n

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As reported by Code Sports<\/a>, the PNG Chiefs have discussed superstar trio Cameron Munster, Isaah Yeo and Nathan Cleary as potential recruitment targets as they look to make a splash in the transfer market.<\/p>\n

While they are not yet able to officially speak to them until at least November 1, it is understood that they will make formal approaches to the trio if they remain on the open market and are still unsigned beyond 2027 come November.<\/p>\n

Peters shares a close bond with the trio after spending time with them during the recent Tour of England, where he worked under Kevin Walters as an assistant coach for the Australian Kangaroos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get strong leaders, I think that\u2019s important. Especially in the environment that we\u2019re in. The leaders are the one who drive your culture and standards, we\u2019ll facilitate that as well as staff,\u201d Peters said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, good people that want to be there. The guys that you\u2019ve mentioned (Munster, Cleary, Yeo) are contracted, and we can\u2019t speak to them until November, but of course, those guys, if they\u2019re available, appeal to anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll then look at players we need for certain positions. It\u2019s about who is going to add value off the field, because that\u2019s what this club is going to be about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be looking within too. We\u2019ll be setting up pathways and making sure we\u2019ve got eyes on every single player in Papua New Guinea. What we want to build eventually is having as many players from PNG in that team and giving them that pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another interview, Peters told CODE Sports, sent a message to the superstar trio.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the right time, if players want to talk to the Chiefs, then I\u2019m sure Michael Chammas will be on the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

“NRL is winning the ratings battle” | 02:10<\/p>\n

Rumours linking Munster to the Chiefs emerged earlier this week<\/a> because he shares the same manager (Braith Anasta) as Peters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBraith Anasta manages Willie Peters. Braith Anasta manages Cameron Munster. Cameron Munsters comes off-contract at Melbourne at the end of 2027, which coincides with PNG,\u201d journalist Brent Read said on Triple M\u2019s Sunday Sin Bin.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they can\u2019t talk to him yet because obviously he\u2019s a November 1 guy but I rang Melbourne this week because there are some murmurs that PNG may take a look at Cam Munster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to Matt Tripp. Trippy said we want to keep Cam Munster at this footy club we don\u2019t want him going anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to sit down with him and try to extend him so he\u2019s a one-club man and he finishes his career at the Melbourne Storm but he hasn\u2019t been able to commence those talks yet – I\u2019d imagine that\u2019ll happen pretty soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as I said there\u2019s a bit of a whisper going around, that Braith Anasta connection with Willie might lead PNG to sound out Cam Munster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tax-Free! Peters addresses recruitment | 02:16<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Nathan Cleary has made no secret of his intention to head to the open market.<\/p>\n

Although he would like to remain a one-club player with the Penrith Panthers, he admitted that he is open to a potential move away from the club and could even see himself potentially switching codes to rugby union at the end of his current deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to imagine right now, yeah,\u201d he said last week in regards to his future.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t really thought about it too much but trying to imagine being somewhere else, it\u2019s tough to think of in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PNG Chiefs have also been linked to international playmaker Gairo Voro, try-scoring record holder Alex Johnston and Cooper Bai, the son of Papua New Guinea icon Marcus Bai.<\/p>\n

Continuing to speak on NRL 360, Peters admitted that he has no interest in chasing NRL players who only want to join the franchise with dollar signs in their eyes.<\/p>\n

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – SEPTEMBER 22: Cameron Munster and Nathan Cleary are in the sights of the Chiefs.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Instead, he wants to land those who want to build a culture and unite a nation through the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to look at every scenario. You can have plans in place and solutions \u2013 for me, what I want to create is a family environment. That\u2019s what attracted me to the role,\u201d Peters added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNaturally, the tax-free dollars are going to be of interest to some people initially. After that, it needs to be bigger \u2013 much bigger than that. It was that for my wife and family; she wouldn\u2019t be coming over if it wasn\u2019t something bigger than money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure we\u2019re getting the right people over: people that want to be there and play for the right reasons<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if they\u2019re coming over for tax-free dollars, they\u2019re not going to have an enjoyable time at all. It\u2019s about winning rugby league games, it\u2019s about building a culture and uniting a nation through this team. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about getting the right people involved who want to be there. If you work hard and you\u2019re a connected team, you can do some special things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after being confirmed as head coach of the PNG Chiefs, Willie Peters has now set his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-575051","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\/575051","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=575051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}