Ryles preparing to leave Storm with no regrets or return date

Jason Ryles will fly out just days after Melbourne's finals campaign ends to begin his new role with England Rugby and the Storm assistant coach has no idea when he will return to the NRL.

The former Kangaroos prop, who has been appointed to the role of skills coach, will join the England camp for the upcoming Autumn Nations Cup tournament and has a contract until the 2023 World Cup in France.

However, Ryles is expected to come under consideration for the Storm job if Craig Bellamy retires from coaching at the end of next season, as the recently-turned 62-year-old said he intended to do.

Ryles has already received approaches from rival NRL clubs and ruled himself out of contention for the Cowboys, Warriors and Dragons head coaching jobs to fulfil his commitment to the England Rugby and coach Eddie Jones.

He will leave for England after Melbourne's season finishes, either in next Friday night's grand final qualifier against the winner of this weekend's Roosters-Raiders elimination final or the premiership decider on October 25.

"I have had no second thoughts," Ryles said. "I am actually really excited about going because I am going straight into one of their campaigns [for the Autumn Nations Cup].

"They have already started their preparations for it so I am really looking to getting into that environment and seeing what I can learn going forward.

"My visa is done, the travel exemption is done, I am just waiting now to know the date I need to book it. If we finish on a Sunday, I will leave on the following Wednesday so I can get straight into it."

The Autumn Nation Cup features England, Ireland, Wales and Georgia in one pool and France, Scotland, Italy and Fiji in another, with Ryles to enter a team bubble ahead of the opening match at Twickenham on November 14.

He has been in regular contact with Jones since taking the job earlier this year, but has remained fully focused on his role with the Storm as their conversations were mostly about the NRL.

"There was a period in COVID where he was watching every NRL game because there was nothing else on in regards to any form of rugby, so he knew everything about every game and he was asking me about it," Ryles said.

"I said 'I don't watch any other games except for who we are playing next week and our game'. He was filling me in on what was going on so he absolutely loves the footy and loves other sports but he hasn't sent me any homework."

The Storm have already replaced Ryles for next season, with former Warriors and Eels coach Stephen Kearney returning to the club where he began his coaching career under Bellamy to work as an assistant.

Brisbane, who last week appointed Kevin Walters to the coaching job, have approached Bellamy about a coaching director's role from 2022 but the Storm want him to stay either in a full-time or part-time capacity.

Besides Ryles, there are a number of coaches available after next season, including Sydney Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon, Wests Tigers mentor Michael Maguire and South Sydney's Wayne Bennett.

North Queensland's 2015 premiership-winning coach Paul Green is also on the lookout for a new job after parting ways with the Cowboys and missing out on the Broncos job, while Shane Flanagan, who steered Cronulla to their first grand final win in 2016, will complete his NRL suspension next year.

Meanwhile, Ryles said a decision on whether NSW lock Dale Finucane and Queensland five-eighth Cameron Munster were available for the end-of-season State of Origin series was likely to be left to the players.

Finucane is under consideration to return for the Storm in the grand final qualifier after being sidelined for eight weeks with a torn calf, while Munster aggravated a knee injury in last weekend's qualifying defeat of Parramatta.

"Craig likes to leave those decisions to the players, he thinks that is really important and especially those guys who are much older and more experienced," Ryles said.

"It is a huge honour to represent any team let alone State of Origin so I think that is a call the players will need to make, and like any representative jersey you don't want to be giving it up for the fact that you want a little bit extra rest. It's going to be a decision they will have to make."