Jason Demetriou says his immediate focus is on growing Papua New Guinea rugby league through the national team not putting his hand up to lead the country's forthcoming NRL side.
After two years of planning, the NRL's PNG team is expected to be rubber-stamped at a meeting in Sydney next week in what Demetriou called "a huge milestone" for rugby league in the Pacific nation.
The former South Sydney coach expects sold-out crowds, a stronger pathways system and a more competitive national team to follow on from the announcement.
"It's going to open the door for PNG rugby league to continue its growth," Demetriou told AAP.
"They'll sell out that stadium. They'll probably have to increase the capacity because they'll sell that out every week.
"To see that (the announcement) is coming close, it'll be a huge milestone for PNG rugby league."
As Demetriou sees it the NRL has begun the process to tap a gold mine of talent, with players in the 12-team Digicel-ExxonMobil Cup now shown a clear pathway to play professionally.
Previously only a handful of players from the semi-professional local competition had made it to the NRL or Super League, including Justin Olam, Rodrick Tai and Sylvester Namo.
"(PNG) is the biggest talent pool that the game can expand to without a doubt," Demetriou said.
"It's going to have a huge impact on the Digicel Cup over there, which for me is a fantastic competition and can grow and arguably be as strong as NSW or Queensland Cup.
"I truly believe that within two or three years that competition will be as strong as both of those competitions and you'll have 12 teams feeding into one NRL side."
Demetriou felt the creation and development of an NRL-calibre junior system would help bolster national team the Kumuls, whom he began coaching this year.
"These guys (currently) aren't coming into any type of system until they're 17, 18 years old, and (the Kumuls) are still ranked fifth or sixth in the world," he said.
"It's pretty remarkable when you consider their (limited) background of junior rugby league."
He likened the Kumuls' potential to the growth of New Zealand rugby league after the Warriors entered the Australian Rugby League in 1995 - the Kiwis' first World Cup win, their biggest defeat of Australia and two of their three largest home crowds have all come since then.
"It's going to make the Kumuls stronger over the next couple of years," he said.
"You've seen since the Warriors came into the competition how different New Zealand rugby league is now compared to before. That's the kind of impact it will have on PNG rugby league."
Demetriou will travel to PNG next year to mentor local coaches as part of his role with the Kumuls.
His name will be naturally linked with the new NRL side's head-coaching role given his recent exposure to the national program and his experience leading South Sydney.
But as the 48-year-old sees it he is already helping the forthcoming NRL side, and will continue to do so at the Kumuls.
"I'm already involved in terms of coaching the Kumuls," he said.
"For me, it's about what I can do now to support the game's growth to rise the Kumuls.
"The Kumuls will still be the number one team over there and if I can support that, we'll see where that takes us."
