Australian comedian and broadcaster Adam Hills is to become the next president of Britain’s Rugby Football League.
Hills, whose TV presenting roles have included hosting terrestrial coverage of Super League with British network Channel 4, will succeed Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, in the honorary position next year.
Hills tweeted his delight at the appointment, saying: “I’ll do my best to promote all aspects of the game…I love rugby league, me.”
Hills, best known as one of the anchors of UK comedy show The Last Leg, was proposed at the annual general meeting of the Rugby League Council on Wednesday and will be formally elected for a two-year term in December.
As well as being a strong advocate for the game in general, Hills has also been a champion for physical disability rugby league as both an ambassador and player for Warrington and Australia.
RFL chief executive Tony Sutton said: “There has been no more enthusiastic or eloquent advocate for rugby league in the media than Adam in recent years, whether as host of Channel 4’s Super League coverage, or welcoming our England wheelchair World Cup winners as guests on The Last Leg.
“He also has authenticity, having been a mainstay of physical disability rugby league since it was launched in 2018.”
Dogs enter race for Utoikamanu
Wests Tigers prop Stefano Utoikamanu could be heading to Canterbury next year after the club has made a late entry into the race for his signature.
As Tigers CEO Shane Richardson was spruiking the club’s salary cap space for 2025 by claiming they will have $2 million to spend on recruits if Utoikamanu walks, the Dogs have expressed an interest in the one-time NSW prop.
Utoikamanu met Melbourne officials earlier this week and is also weighing up an offer from Canberra after he was given permission to test the market by Wests.
The Tigers have a $4 million offer over five years on the table but their chances of retaining the prop appear slimmer as the saga drags on.
Te’o tracking back to Broncos
Former Brisbane forward Ben Te’o will return to the club as an assistant coach in 2025 as the Broncos revamp their coaching roster.
The 37-year-old 2014 premiership winner with South Sydney will leave Redcliffe Dolphins, where he has coached the Queensland Cup side and been an NRL assistant for the past two seasons, to take up a two-year deal under head coach Kevin Walters.
The Broncos will bid farewell to at least two assistant coaches next year with John Cartwright joining Hull FC as head coach and Lee Briers linking with St Helens.
Te’o is regarded as a coach on the rise after taking the advice of Wayne Bennett and other great coaches about how he should conduct himself on his journey.
In 2022, the former Queensland Maroons star was slated to work the pre-season as a Broncos forwards coach on a consultancy basis but a meeting with Bennett on the Gold Coast changed his thinking.
“I was going to do that Broncos role, but I’d asked a lot of people like Michael Maguire and (former Wallabies coach) Michael Cheika for advice about coaching and I kept hearing ‘do it the right way’,” Te’o said at the time.
“Then I met Wayne and he gave me the same advice. He kept saying ‘get your own team and learn your lessons’.
“He said the easy path is to be one of these consultants, which a lot of ex-players do, but the key is to get your own team and manage the drills, the training, the selection and the personalities.
“When I think about league and union there is one coaching name that is head and shoulders above the rest and that is him, so I would be mad to not get exposed to his wisdom.”
Te’o has done exactly that and will link again with Walters, whom he played under in his final season in 2021. Both men have gleaned plenty from Bennett but have also forged their own path in coaching.
Te’o, who also played 16 rugby union Tests for England as well as seven Origin matches for Queensland, will have the opportunity to mentor the Broncos forwards after watching Bennett build the Dolphins from the ground up and Walters rejuvenate Brisbane.
He has learned plenty about managing a group and getting everyone on the same page, which he has also done with his own teams.
A biceps injury for the Broncos in the last of his 173 NRL games was followed by Te’o dipping his toe in the post-footballing waters.
“Then I asked Kevvie Walters if I could do some one-on-one stuff with the young guys and got going with them doing some video, and I just loved it. That is when I realised I had more to offer,” he said.
with AAP
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