Cronulla Sharks CEO Steve Rogers is "reasonably confident" former Queensland Origin halfback Adrian Lam will be joining the NRL side as assistant coach on Saturday.

Rogers offered Lam a two-year deal on Thursday to try and entice him away from coaching the Wigan under-21 squad in England but has yet to receive an official answer.

"The situation at the moment is that he's just trying to clarify his situation in the UK," Rogers said. "We're reasonably confident that he just needs to sort his issues out then he'll give us an answer."

Rogers said he understood Lam would be trying to contact Wigan this evening and that the Sharks would be able to make an official announcement on Saturday morning.

The vacancy arose when Cronulla assistant coach Peter Gentle defected to premiers Wests Tigers to mentor the lower grades next season.

Rogers said the retired Maroons star impressed Sharks coach Stuart Raper with his football brain as a player when the two were at Wigan in the English Super League.

Lam's manager Sam Ayoub said the delay in responding to the offer was because the former Roosters halfback wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing.

"We've had a good chat about it and it's a good opportunity and something he would certainly love to do but he doesn't know if he should take it up now or give himself more time," Ayoub said.

"He just wants to be genuine about his decision and not do the wrong thing by anybody."

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