{"id":522028,"date":"2026-04-09T19:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:53:10","slug":"former-super-league-and-england-international-steps-back-from-nrl-coaching-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522028\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Super League and England international steps back from NRL coaching gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NRL\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Former NRL and Super League star Elliott Whitehead has taken a step back from his coaching career, having linked up with former club Canberra Raiders late last year.<\/p>\n

Whitehead, 36, returned to Super League for one final year in 2025 but his time with Catalans Dragons was hampered by injury with the veteran forward eventually retiring<\/a> and returning back to Australia.<\/p>\n

It was in Australia where Whitehead spent a large part of his career, making a move to the NRL ahead of the 2016 season and spending almost a decade there at Canberra Raiders.<\/p>\n

He rejoined the Raiders last November<\/a> to take on a coaching role with the NRL side and the club\u2019s Jersey Flegg team, however, it\u2019s now been confirmed that he stepped down from the role last month.<\/p>\n

Speaking to\u00a0The Canberra Times<\/a>,\u00a0Whitehead confirmed that he\u2019s stepping away from his career as a coach to focus on family life, especially with him having a young daughter.<\/p>\n

Elliott Whitehead takes step back from coaching just months after Super League exit<\/p>\n

He revealed that long hours meant he simply wasn\u2019t seeing enough of his family and with the injury issues that plagued him in 2025 still having an impact, he made the choice to step away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit too much after being away a year, with my daughter and stuff,\u201d the Englishman told\u00a0The Canberra Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably just needed to step away. My injury is still playing up a little bit. I was in there from like 7am to late\u2026 so picking up my daughter became hard when I had to pick her up from daycare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite making this decision now, Whitehead hasn\u2019t put the lid on a coaching career fully as he added: \u201cHopefully I might go back next year once my daughter is a little bit older and I\u2019ve spent a bit more time with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Australian report, Whitehead has now landed a role as a junior foreman at a construction company.<\/p>\n

Super League Rivals Round madness, broken video referee system and Challenge Cup predictions \u2013\u00a0Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NRL and Super League star Elliott Whitehead has taken a step back from his coaching career, having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-522028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}