Twelve years after guiding the Waratahs to the club's one and only Super Rugby crown, Cheika has placed his NRL coaching ambitions on hold to answer an SOS call to rescue Australian rugby's greatest under-achievers after three-straight missed finals campaigns.
Even the 59-year-old concedes his prodigal son-like return to the now Rugby Australia-run franchise seems far-fetched given his acrimonious departure in the bitter aftermath to his Wallabies' 2019 Rugby World Cup quarter-final exit in Japan.
But Cheika on Wednesday revealed how an olive branch extended by RA boss and Wallabies great Phil Waugh proved decisive in luring him back from his assistant's role at newly-crowned NRL premiers the Sydney Roosters.
"I haven't really had contact with many people, if anyone, from Australia in rugby since the World Cup in '19 and I thought that when Phil contacted me, he handled that situation very well," Cheika said.
"He was very straight up and down, very direct, and I appreciated that and I looked at that as a sign of, 'OK, if that's the way we can get things done, then yeah'.
"I had to decide in my own head that I could do what was necessary to make the team go well. It's not about me, it's about the team."
Once he decided that, Cheika immediately went to work assembling a team of fellow winners as able deputies.
Stephen Hoiles and Wycliff Palu, both members of NSW's triumphant 2014 outfit under Cheika, both jumped at the chance to join their old mentor.
But, again, it was Waugh who proved instrumental in enticing Hoiles back from the US, where the ex-Wallabies flanker coached the LA Giltinis to a maiden Major League Rugby championship in his first season.
"I was back here for a holiday when the change happened," Hoiles explained, referring to Dan McKellar's sacking.
"There's no plans of moving the family back ... but I actually met with Phil separately and Phil had said he was interested in having me, but he wanted me to do it with a senior figurehead.
"I didn't think it was 'Cheik' that he was referring to and I just politely said, 'Look, that's probably not for me unless it was someone like a 'Cheik'.'
Waugh's move proved to be check mate as Hoiles signed on before Cheika the dual-code master mentor and influencer then weaved his magic to entice Palu back too.
"I literally got back in the country four months ago. I was in Japan, finished up playing there and then got into the coaching stuff and no-one had my number," Palu said.
"But then I get these texts from 'Cheik' saying 'if this is you Cliff, you give me a call. So I gave him a buzz and it pretty much went from there. It's obviously a special place for me."
Asked by AAP what he hoped to bring as a coach, gentle giant Palu said: "Oh man, I care for people. I think that's what I do well. I think I did it as a player as well, so show a bit of connection with the players."
When pointed out that Palu might bring a Wayne Bennett, father figure-like approach to the Waratahs while the hot-headed Cheika applies the infamous Sir Alex Ferguson "hair dryer" dressing-room approach, the returning gaffer could only agree.
"I'm happy for a good cop, bad cop," Cheika said.
"As long as I'm the bad cop."
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