Michael Cheika is heading back to the Waratahs, but has backed his assistant and Wests Tigers legend Robbie Farah to succeed him as Lebanon coach.
Fresh from celebrating the NRL premiership with the Sydney Roosters, where he was an assistant to Trent Robinson, Cheika will finish up in rugby league at the end of the World Cup.
Matt King, another Lebanon assistant who was also involved with the Roosters, will quit to lead the NSW Origin team next year, which leaves Farah to take the reins with the Cedars moving forward.
“We’ll decide all that once we’re finished, but Robbie is a guy who is here, he has a nice balance between doing some consulting coaching, he wants to be involved in coaching here, he’s very passionate, and he’s the best equipped around the Lebanese team, per se,” Cheika said on Monday.
“I see him as a guy who definitely in the future can be in charge of this team, without a doubt.”
Farah, who worked under good friend Benji Marshall as an assistant coach at the Tigers before stepping away at the end of 2024, said he was open to taking on a role like the Cedars position.
“It’s humbling to hear Cheika say that about me, but he’s still the coach, and I haven’t given it much thought,” Farah told this masthead.
“If Lebanon asked me to run the water, I’d run the water. It’s about giving back. I’m quite inexperienced when it comes to coaching, so to spend the 2022 World Cup with ‘Cheik’ in the UK, now this World Cup, he’s a wealth of knowledge, and there’s no better person to learn from when you see his resume in both codes.
“I love coaching Lebanon, and it’s something I’m super passionate about. I was an assistant at the Tigers for a while, but I went straight from playing to coaching, and I thought the time was right for me to step away from the Tigers and freshen myself up, and just get away from footy.
“But being here in camp, it’s something close to my heart. I got my chance to play for the Cedars as an 18-year-old, and it springboarded my career because I was playing in the NRL within six months. I’ll forever be in debt to the Cedars, this jersey, and what it did for me.
“I’d love to help out where I can, and see more Lebanese kids coming through – not just for the Cedars, but in the NRL.
“When I first started, it was Benny [Elias] and Hazem [El Masri], then myself, Tim Mannah, Michael Lichaa, Adam Doueihi and Mitch Mose. Now it’s [Tigers prop and Lebanon captain] Alex Twal, Jordan Samrani, Jacob Kiraz. They are growing, and there’s no reason by the next World Cup we can’t have double the amount of Lebanese players in the NRL.”
Twal took to the stage at a fan day in Burwood on Monday, smiled, then told the vocal supporters: “There is one thing Lebanese people have – big hearts, and big hair. We won’t let you down on Friday night.”
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