{"id":856754,"date":"2026-08-16T01:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856754\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T01:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T01:14:11","slug":"nrl-2026-wayne-bennett-says-cameron-smith-should-be-the-next-coach-of-the-maroons-billy-slater-stands-down-coaching-contenders-news-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856754\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Wayne Bennett says Cameron Smith should be the next coach of the Maroons, Billy Slater stands down, coaching contenders, news, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wayne Bennett believes there\u2019s one clear choice for who should replace Billy Slater as Maroons head coach. Queensland legend Cameron Smith. <\/p>\n

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Slater shocked the rugby league world when he stood down from his coaching role on Friday afternoon. It quickly sparked discussion on who could step up and lead Queensland in Slater\u2019s place. <\/a><\/p>\n

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However Bennett, who coached the Maroons to six series wins, says the decision is obvious in his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cCam Smith is the ideal choice,\u201d Bennett told Code Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great player and he has been part of the Queensland system before as an assistant to Billy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt for me he would be great. If he wanted to do it, he would handle it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been there with Billy and done some coaching, he would have great respect from the playing group.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘DEVASTATING’: Metcalf & Walsh go down | 01:13<\/p>\n

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Given Bennett\u2019s voice holds so much weight in the game, Smith is the clear favourite for the role. <\/p>\n

Does he want it though? <\/p>\n

The NRL\u2019s record holder for games played says he would consider it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are asking me if I will coach,\u201d Smith said on 2GB.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I really didn\u2019t think Billy would step down this year, so I haven\u2019t thought about it. But it\u2019s something definitely to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate enough to spend two years with Billy as an assistant coach in 2022 and 2023, and had a fantastic time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have to speak with my family first and foremost. That will be the deciding factor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wayne Bennett believes there\u2019s one clear choice for who should replace Billy Slater as Maroons head coach. Queensland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-856754","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\/856754","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=856754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}