{"id":152278,"date":"2025-09-18T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152278\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:46:11","slug":"mark-riddell-handed-exciting-new-role-at-the-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152278\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Riddell handed exciting new role at the Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>St George Illawarra have confirmed that Mark \u2018Piggy\u2019 Riddell will step into a newly created position as the Dragons\u2019 NRLW and Pathways Recruitment Lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The club favourite, who played 92 matches in the Red V between 2001 and 2004, will now spearhead recruitment and retention across the women\u2019s squad and the broader female pathways system.<\/p>\n<p>Riddell has already been a familiar face at the club this year, first assisting Shaun Timmins with the SG Ball squad before linking up with Nathan Cross\u2019 NRLW coaching staff as an assistant in April. His new appointment formalises his growing influence in the women\u2019s game and places him at the heart of the Dragons\u2019 future planning.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/will-tom-hazelton-play-sharks-semi-final-knee-injury\/ceffcbed1b85f7a563ad70c0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Will Tom Hazelton play for the Sharks in semi-final clash against the Raiders?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2018An important step\u2019 for the Dragons\u2019 vision<\/p>\n<p>Female Football Manager Sammy Bremner said the move underlines the club\u2019s ambition to build a sustainable and successful women\u2019s programme. \u201cThe club felt that it was important to have someone with Piggy\u2019s experience and expertise to take on this role in a formal capacity,\u201d Bremner said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s been involved with women\u2019s rugby league for a long time and has the skillset to really succeed this role. He\u2019s a highly respected figure, and people enjoy working with him. We felt that this was an important step as we continue to carry out our vision of building a sustainable and winning women\u2019s program at the Dragons and are excited for what is to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riddell\u2019s brief will centre on creating alignment across the Dragons\u2019 pathways while continuing to support player development. His appointment signals the club\u2019s intent to strengthen its foundations as the NRLW continues to expand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra have confirmed that Mark \u2018Piggy\u2019 Riddell will step into a newly created position as the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-152278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}