Samoan head coach Matt Parish has claimed he will never become an NRL head coach.
The Samoan mentor, who took the small Pacific Island nation to their first Rugby League World Cup final during the recently completed tournament in England, has previously spent time as an NRL assistant coach.
A former Balmain Tigers player, Parish coached the Salford Red Devils for six games in 2011, winning just one game before leaving his post not even a season into his three-year deal due to 'personal reasons.'
Parish has also served as an assistant coach at the North Queensland Cowboys, and with the New South Wales Blues, where he currently works in a pathways role under head coach Brad Fittler.
Parish took over Samoa in 2013, and has now coached through three World Cup campaigns, making the quarter-finals in 2013 and 2017, before losing to Australia in the final this year.
Speaking to Wide World of Sports though, Parish admitted he would never become an NRL head coach.
"I know I'll never be an NRL head coach and I'm fine with that," Parish told Wide World of Sports.
"I've done my time as an assistant coach and enjoyed that.
"But I've been working the last few years in pathways with the NSW Rugby League and I love helping young up and comers.
"I work closely with 'Freddy' (Blues coach Brad Fittler) and he is great in his support of these rising players.
"They are young and keen to learn and enjoyable to work with."
Parish was under pressure coming into the tournament, and even more so after a 60 points to 6 thumping at the hands of England in the tournament opener, but a bounce back win over the hosts in the semi-finals, as well as their win over Tonga in the quarter-finals, has left the coach with a strong hold on his position at the head of a team with plenty of players who have turned their backs on playing for Australia.
It has been reported that a majority of the players who represented Toa Samoa at this World Cup will do the same again in the coming years, with the 2025 Rugby League World Cup to be held in France, but an international calendar covering the next decade set to be announced then by the IRL.
It has been speculated that Tonga and Samoa could clash in a series of Tests at the end of the 2023 NRL season, with the matches played in the home nations.
