NRL

Former England, Super League and NRL star Elliott Whitehead has had his new role confirming after hanging up the boots and retiring.

Whilst he’s retired from playing the sport, Whitehead is still going to be heavily involved as he’s already returned back down under and taken up a role at former club Canberra Raiders.

The Yorkshire-born forward has spoken openly in the past about his desire to coach and work at Canberra, the NRL club where he spent much of his career.

Debuting with Bradford Bulls in 2009, Whitehead joined Catalans Dragons in 2013 before making his NRL switch ahead of the 2016 season. He’d make over 200 appearances for the Raiders before a return to Perpignan and Catalans, albeit that was short-lived.

Whitehead called time on his playing career back in August after making just 13 appearances for the French side and his transition to coaching, as had previously been reported, has now been confirmed.

Elliott Whitehead begins coaching journey with NRL club

Just as in Super League, NRL pre-seasons are starting up again with a number of clubs sharing footage online, including Canterbury Bulldogs who saw last year’s mid-season signing Lachlan Galvin break the club record for the ‘bronco’ in training.

Canberra Raiders’ social media output has seen them welcome back Elliott Whitehead into the fold with the Englishman back down under in a coaching capacity, though the official title is yet to be announced.

Sharing a 20 second clip of Whitehead interacting with players and coaches, Canberra Raiders captioned the video “Back in the Capital”, with the 36-year-old also sharing it on his own social media account.

Taking to Instagram, Whitehead gave it the brief caption: “Back home”.

Back in October 2024 after signing with Catalans Dragons, Whitehead told former England teammate James Graham on Graham’s Bye Round Podcast of his intent to coach with the Raiders.

He’d said: “I want to come back to Canberra once the year’s finished at Catalans and do some coaching here (Canberra) and hopefully progress in that aspect.”

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