Australian Wheelaroos captain Diab Karim is targeting State of Origin success and World Cup glory to round off an already impressive year.

DIAB KARIM, this year’s New South Wales Cup Wheelchair Grand Final-winning captain, has achieved two out of his four goals so far for 2026.

In late June, he captained South Sydney Rabbitohs to their second successive Grand Final win when they beat St George Illawarra Dragons 40-28 after three months of competition.

Then, a couple of weeks later, there was a weekend-long NRL Championship, when six Australian regions went into competition, and Karim had a special role in the NSW side who beat North Queensland 28-18 in the final.

Now, he has two further goals – to win September’s State Challenge against Queensland, then the World Cup with Australia in November.

It’s been a whirlwind with the Rabbitohs. With a side just two years’ old, they’ve not yet lost a match.

“Our competition goes from March to June,” he said. “I’m actually a Bulldogs fan, but I was approached by the Rabbitohs who wanted to form a Wheelchair side. So, they put together a team, I was made captain and we’ve been undefeated for two years, beating the Dragons in the final each time.

“After that, I heard that New South Wales didn’t have a coach for this year, so I put my hand up to be a player/coach for the NRL Championships.

“Coaching is new to me, but I knew if I put together a good team, stuck to a normal structure and didn’t overplay our hand, I thought we’d go a long way, but we ended up winning it.”

Not only did Karim coach the winners, he was the second-highest points scorer in the tournament with 76, totalling nine tries and 20 goals, second only to North Queensland’s Bayley McKenna.

Victoria, New Zealand, South East and Central Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and the Australian Affiliated States were the other sides involved.

Now, he has a strange weekend ahead of him, culminating in Wheelchair Rugby League’s version of State of Origin, the State Challenge, at Bennelong Sports Centre, West Ryde, Sydney, on Sunday, 6th September, where New South Wales will look to snatch the trophy back after five consecutive Queensland wins, in a match that’s every bit as intense as those played by the men and women earlier in the year.

“We’ve got a World Cup training camp for the Wheelaroos that’s on Saturday, 5th September, then we’ve the State Challenge on the 6th.

“We’re all coming together for training, then the next day, we’re enemies.

“New South Wales against Queensland is going to be a full-on game, very intense. Emotions are going to be everywhere. But once the 80 minutes are over, we’re back to being friends and getting ready for the World Cup.”

This year’s World Cup will be Karim’s third, with this only the second edition of the competition to take place in Australia.

And it will be a special moment for him, as he first watched the sport at that other World Cup in Australia, back in 2008.

“I’ve got a disabled brother,” he said. “He’s got scoliosis and was born with that condition. I used to go to watch him play Power Chair Soccer every weekend. He represented Australia and won World MVP in 2017.

“We went along to watch all the matches in the first Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup in Sydney in 2008, then two years’ later, I was properly introduced to the sport by Joseph Chidiac who actually got Wheelchair Rugby League up and running in Australia.

“And he asked me, because I used to jump in a wheelchair and just push around while my brother was playing, if I wanted to have a try with this new sport, and as soon as I jumped in and started playing, it’s like I was one with the chair. It was like it wasn’t something new to me. I didn’t have to get much training in or anything, it was just natural.”

Karim was a semi-finalist with Australia in the last two World Cups, but does he believe the Wheelaroos can go a step further this year?

“I definitely think so,” he said. “We had a test series with England last year. We lost both, but they were pretty close, especially the second match.

“We only trained together a few times before then. Training is very limited for us as a collective as we’re split between the states.

“But since then we’ve spent more time together, getting to know each other’s games, putting together a game plan and executing it.

“We’ll have a couple more camps, and I think the more time we get together, the more we’ll gel. I definitely feel we’re going to rattle a few, and definitely England and France.

“We’re also looking forward to hosting it at last. The rugby league community is all behind us. It’s going to be massive down at Wollongong, which is a beautiful venue in a beautiful area. It’s going to draw a lot of attention from people here and from overseas.”

The Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong kicks off on Friday, 30th October with USA v Ireland at 1pm, followed immediately by England v Wales. Then, next door at WIN Stadium, it’s England v Samoa women at 5.45pm and England v Papua New Guinea men at 8.05pm.

And whilst Australia’s campaign doesn’t kick off until the day after, Karim is encouraging England fans who are out for the World Cup to get down there early and experience the wheelchair game.

“Just come down and see an amazing sport with collisions and contact you won’t have dreamed of. We want to draw in a big crowd. It’s live on Seven throughout Australia, which is massive for us, so it’ll get free-to-air coverage.

“After this World Cup, I hope more people give it a go and get to see our beautiful sport the way we all love it.”

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 524 (September 2026)