{"id":350761,"date":"2026-03-27T15:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350761\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T15:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T15:22:14","slug":"png-chiefs-inaugural-coach-decided-after-four-way-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350761\/","title":{"rendered":"PNG Chiefs inaugural coach decided after four-way race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Rugby League<\/a> Commission is understood to have appointed Willie Peters<\/a> as the inaugural head coach of the PNG Chiefs<\/a>, who are set to enter the NRL<\/a> in 2028.<\/p>\n

The NRL’s second expansion team in as many years who will take the competition to 19 teams, the Chiefs are the NRL’s most audacious project yet.<\/p>\n

The Port Moresby-based outfit can begin negotiations with players from November 1 this year, and Peters, according to multiple sources, has been appointed the head coach of the side.<\/p>\n

It’s understood his management and the ARLC – who maintain the right to appoint the first head coach for new outfits, as they did with Wayne Bennett<\/a> at the Dolphins<\/a> and Mal Meninga<\/a> at the Perth Bears<\/a> – are in the final exchanges of negotiations with a four-year deal on the table.<\/p>\n

That deal will be longer than the one agreed to by both Bennett and Meninga when they began work at their respective expansion clubs.<\/p>\n

Reports out of England<\/a> claim Peters told Hull KR<\/a> staff and players of his decision overnight.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs, who have already appointed ex-journalist Michael Chammas as their director of football, will face unique challenges not seen before in the NRL<\/a>, with question marks around how they will attract talent to make the shift away from Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peters will help that cause though given his wild success in England<\/a> with Hull KR<\/a> over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n

In being appointed, Peters has seen off challenges from Brad Arthur<\/a>, Jason Demetriou<\/a> and Adrian Lam<\/a>, who were both believed to be well in the mix to take over the inaugural coaching appointment.<\/p>\n

As with the Dolphins<\/a> and Bears, Peters will commence work with the new outfit from the end of the current season given player recruitment can kick-off on November 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Rugby League Commission is understood to have appointed Willie Peters as the inaugural head coach of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-350761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}