Hull KR’s next head coach will certainly have big shoes to fill following the success of Willie Peters
Picture by Ed Sykes/SWpix.com – 11/10/2025 – Rugby League – Betfred Super League Grand Final – Hull KR v Wigan Warriors – Old Trafford, Manchester, England – Hull Kingston Rovers directors Paul Lakin and Paul Sewell celebrate with the Betfred Super League trophy
Hull KR hope to be in a position to make an announcement on a new head coach as early as May.
That’s according to CEO Paul Lakin who has provided supporters with an update on the club’s thinking and progress in their hunt to replace Willie Peters at the Craven Park helm.
Peters confirmed his departure at the end of March, with the Australian set to return down under at the end of the current season in order to become Papua New Guinea Chiefs’ first ever head coach.
Having won all there is to win in the Northern Hemisphere, few would begrudge Peters the opportunity to test himself in the NRL and he’ll be looking to go out on a high over the coming months.
However, while KR are finding form on the field, the wheels are in motion in the background as Rovers look to find Peters’ successor.
He’ll leave big shoes to fill in east Hull, that is for certain, but Lakin hopes to be able to settle on the right man in the coming weeks.
“I’d like to think it’s a really attractive job,” he told the BBC. “It’s not for the weak-minded. We’re looking for a coach who is going to back themselves, because taking over a club that’s just won four trophies so you can’t have an inferiority complex, that’s for sure.
“What we’ve been afforded is time, and that’s a luxury. We’re only in early April so we will take our time, but I think we should be making an announcement in May.
“I want to make it as soon as that, because I want to work with the coach in parallel to Willie for next year.”
Of course, Peters will be leaving a very different club to the one he first joined at the start of the 2023 season and the Robins understandably find themselves fishing in a different pond to the one they did before Peters’ appointment.
However, when it comes to building sustained success at the club, Lakin sees the way St Helens replaced Justin Holbrook as a blueprint.
“You get that [recruitment] right, everything else is that little bit easier around the club,” Lakin added. “It’s big shoes to fill, clearly, but as you’d expect there is a lot of interest from the right calibre of people, so I’m looking forward to the process. I don’t see it as pressure, I’m excited by it.”
“When Willie came in we weren’t in anything like this position. We obviously need a coach who is excited by the challenge. I go back to St Helens when Justin Holbrook left and Woolf came in, he elevated them from a really strong position and that’s exactly what we want. We’re looking for evolution and not revolution.”
And, while he is far from at the forefront of the head coach hunt, it would seem as though, Peters is offering a helping hand by being a sounding board for Lakin when it comes to potential candidates.
“I do the research and then I’ll bounce the names off him,” the chief executive added. “One thing Willie has always been is unbelievably connected with individuals in Australia and he pretty much knows everybody.
“I’ve had a chat with him and I’ve spoken to the board about what I think we need and it is about not changing majorly because the squad is pretty much set for next year, we need someone who is comfortable with what we’ve got and thinks they can improve it by that five per cent.”