A local junior who rose through the ranks to play 106 NRL games, featuring a premiership with the Knights in 2001, twice representing NSW Country and adjudged man-of-the-match in a Newcastle first-grade grand final five years ago.

But having now hung up the boots, Abraham has decided to tackle some rugby league theory.

Not only will the 41-year-old oversee the Newcastle Rebels representative program in 2022, the former forward has also kick-started a university degree specialising in sports coaching.

Abraham says he wants to gear himself with some background knowledge as he pursues the new role.

"I've enrolled in a degree this year at the University of Sydney. It's education with a focus on sports coaching," Abraham told the Newcastle Herald.

"I do enjoy the coaching and want to pursue it a little bit further, see how far I can go with it.

"I just wanted that little bit of knowledge in the background about what we do and why we do it, doing things well and doing things properly."

Abraham never got to wear a senior Newcastle representative uniform during his decorated career, going close in later years before dislocating his shoulder.

However, he recalls wearing the "old green and brown jersey" as a junior and playing for Newcastle at the under-18 NSW Country Championships in 1999.

More than two decades on, Abraham finds himself back in somewhat familiar territory and he's got a goal in mind.

"One of the main things I will ask and expect from the playing group, they want to be there for the right reasons," he said.

"I don't want blokes who think they've got to be there. I want them to be there because they want to be there and they want to represent Newcastle.

"There's a lot of history around that Newcastle representative jersey and I want to instil a bit of pride back into it."

The Rebels were scheduled to play against Illawarra and Canberra this year, but original plans have shifted recently.

Illawarra's competition has been delayed by wet weather and they are now unable to send a team next month.

Newcastle Rugby League boss Marc Glanville is hopeful that game at Maitland will instead be postponed until the June long weekend while a clash with Canberra in the nation's capital gets brought forward to May 14-15.

Glanville said on Wednesday that negotiations between all three parties were ongoing.

The Rebels squad is expected to be announced in coming weeks with four rounds of the regular season now completed.

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