Willie Peters reveals top job he walked away from for PNG Chiefs

New PNG Chiefs coach Willie Peters has declared that he is ready for the challenge of the PNG Chiefs, revealing he walked away from his dream of coaching England to head up the NRL’s new franchise.

Peters was today confirmed as the inaugural head coach of the PNG Chiefs, having been arguably rugby league’s most in-demand coach-in-waiting after leading Hull KR to the treble in England’s Super League for the first time in club history.

The 47-year-old former halfback served as assistant coach on Australia’s Ashes campaign last season but revealed he was in the running to lead the English national team in the 2026 World Cup, before deciding the PNG Chiefs was where his future lie.

“That'll (coaching England) be off the table,” Peters confirmed on Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters: Rugby League.

“My main focus now is what I'm doing at Hull KR. (I) absolutely love my time here… the people of East Hull have taken my family in and we're we're still on that journey, so that's my immediate focus.

“Naturally, in the background, I'll be helping the Chiefs, and what's needed there, but the focus now initially is on Hull KR and certainly on the Chiefs when that time comes.

“It would have been awesome to coach England.

“It was something that I really wanted to do, but that job needs two-to-three years of attention from whoever that coach is to get it right.

“I've got an opportunity now to be involved in the Chiefs and (I’m) really looking forward to that.”

Peters isn’t naive to the challenge that sits before him.

The task of bringing success to the Chiefs and attracting a strong squad to the country, while navigating unprecedented challenges, is enough to worry anyone.

But the opportunity to build a club and culture at the Chiefs was one Peters couldn’t turn down when he was first presented with the possibility just over a month ago.

“It's a unique opportunity to represent a country and the people of Papua New Guinea, (and it) is something that I'm really looking forward to.

“There's a massive responsibility involved in that and to be able to put a roster together, a staff together, build a culture from scratch, that's something that really excites me.

“I'm fully aware it's a huge challenge, but any job has its challenges, and for me, I love bringing people together. I love creating a family environment, and that's what we aim to do at the Chiefs.

“It became real probably about five or six weeks ago when, initially, a journalist asked me about the Chiefs.

“I said that… I think I'd love to be involved with a start-up club, build a roster, build staff, build culture or help build culture, those sorts of things, and then from there, there was a bit of interest at their end.

“So the conversation sort of started and naturally, behind the scenes, it's the family that I was most concerned about, making sure that this was the right decision for all of us.

“Once we decided, this is the opportunity that we want to take, it was a no-brainer for us.

“It was a job that I wanted… We sort of went after it in a sense, but the Chiefs wanted me and I believe it's a win-win.”