{"id":681676,"date":"2026-05-19T22:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681676\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:12:11","slug":"gorden-tallis-puts-family-first-as-nrl-legend-steps-down-from-coaching-role-with-kangaroos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/681676\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorden Tallis puts family first as NRL legend steps down from coaching role with Kangaroos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Walters has revealed that Gorden Tallis<\/a> won\u2019t be part of his Kangaroos coaching staff<\/a> for this year\u2019s World Cup, with the Broncos legend opting to spend that time with family. Tallis was an assistant under Walters during last year\u2019s Ashes tour<\/a>, which the Kangaroos won 3-0 against England.<\/p>\n

Tallis was initially blocked by the NRL<\/a> from touring as a \u2018cultural attache\u2019, so Walters took him as an assistant coach instead. The move raised some eyebrows around the NRL world considering Tallis\u2019 lack of recent coaching experience.<\/p>\n

\"Gorden<\/p>\n

Gorden Tallis will spend time with family rather than working with the Kangaroos at the World Cup. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

Speculation has been rife that Tallis would step down and not be part of the Kangaroos\u2019 set-up for the end-of-year World Cup, and on Tuesday Walters confirmed the news. Walters has been retained as coach for Australia\u2019s World Cup defence, but Tallis won\u2019t be returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cGordie told me that he won\u2019t (be returning),\u201d Walters said on the \u2018Inside Ball\u2019 podcast. \u201cThat\u2019s his holiday time and family time, which is fair. He won\u2019t be backing up this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tallis holds multiple roles in the media with Fox League and Triple M radio, as well as being a part-owner of the Gold Coast Titans. The World Cup will be held in Australia, New Zealand and PNG just two weeks after the NRL grand final, giving players and coaches little time off.<\/p>\n

\"Gorden<\/p>\n

Gorden Tallis (far left) was part of the Kangaroos staff for last year’s Ashes series.<\/p>\n

(Jess Hornby)Kevin Walters wants Ben Te\u2019o on Kangaroos staff<\/p>\n

Walters said he expects the majority of his other staff from last year to return, but he might also be without his other assistant Willie Peters. The current Hull KR coach was one of two assistants in the Ashes alongside Tallis, and was recently appointed as the inaugural coach of the PNG Chiefs.<\/p>\n

With PNG set to enter the NRL competition in 2028, it remains to be seen whether Peters will continue as a Kangaroos assistant. Walters said he\u2019s confident he\u2019ll add Ben Te\u2019o to his staff for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Te\u2019o recently stepped down as an assistant under Michael Maguire at the Broncos to work with Billy Slater in the Queensland State of Origin squad<\/a>. The Broncos weren\u2019t willing to release Te\u2019o for Origin camp, so he parted ways with the club<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve reached out to Ben,\u201d Walters said. \u201cI would imagine so (he\u2019ll accept the offer). There\u2019s some great people out there looking for an opportunity to coach, so we\u2019ll get the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters has revealed that Gorden Tallis won\u2019t be part of his Kangaroos coaching staff for this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[24164,64,63,5366,30193,3195,3194,761,762,158,85,81370,21418],"class_list":["post-681676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-assistant-coach","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-broncos","tag-gorden-tallis","tag-kangaroos","tag-kevin-walters","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports","tag-willie-peters","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681676","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=681676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}