{"id":305163,"date":"2025-11-24T07:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305163\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T07:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:56:08","slug":"nrl-club-joins-race-for-dolphins-gun-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305163\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL club joins race for Dolphins gun – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> have expressed interest in Jake Averillo<\/a>, who is suddenly facing an unclear future at the Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The centre, who can also play fullback, wing or in the halves, has been one of the most important figures for the Dolphins<\/a> since his arrival at the club from the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> for the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Finding a permanent home in Kristian Woolf’s side, Averillo, through other signings, suddenly faces the very real prospect of not being in the best 17 for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

That comes with the breakout form of Trai Fuller<\/a>, the signing of Selwyn Cobbo<\/a>, and no other players leaving the club.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Dolphins<\/a> have all of Trai Fuller<\/a>, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a>, Jamayne Isaako<\/a> (who is the goal-kicker and hasn’t missed a game since joining the Dolphins<\/a> ahead of their inaugural season), Jack Bostock<\/a>, Herbie Farnworth<\/a>, off-season recruit\u00a0Cobbo, and youngsters Tevita Naufahu<\/a> and LJ Nonu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ultimately nine players do not fit into five spots, and reports first emerged over the weekend that, despite being contracted for 2026, English Super League<\/a> clubs were sniffing around with a potential chance of the back being released immediately.<\/p>\n

A release to England<\/a> would see Averillo become one of the best players in the competition on the other side of the world, but now there is a chance he remains in the NRL<\/a> with another club.<\/p>\n

Zero Tackle have learnt Shane Flanagan<\/a> and his recruitment staff at the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> are interested in Averillo, although it’s understood those conversations have not gone beyond preliminary discussions at this stage, with no offer tabled.<\/p>\n

It’s also unclear the Dolphins’<\/a> true appetite to release Averillo, with the club yet to comment publicly on the rumours.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Averillo is contracted with the Redcliffe-based outfit through to the end of 2026, and could be targeted by the Perth Bears<\/a> for their inaugural season in 2027.<\/p>\n

The Bears have had a difficult start to their first recruitment window, with three potential targets in Jayden Campbell<\/a>, Beau Fermor<\/a> and Jye Gray<\/a> all re-signing in recent days with their current clubs.<\/p>\n

The Bears are unlikely to be the only club interested in a player like Averillo given his enormous versatility and talent, and a move back to Sydney may appeal, with the consistent backline force a Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> junior.<\/p>\n

The Dragons have Moses Suli<\/a> and Valentine Holmes<\/a> on their roster to play in the centres, as well as youngsters Hayden Buchanan<\/a> and Nick Tsougranis<\/a>, but the Red V have significant questions over their wingers and halves.<\/p>\n

With Christian Tuipulotu’s hamstrings struggling, and Tyrell Sloan<\/a> on the outer, the Dragons could look to move Valentine Holmes<\/a> to the wing, or even play Averillo there, while in the halves, Daniel Atkinson<\/a> arrives from the Cronulla Sharks<\/a>, with Kyle Flanagan<\/a> and Lyhkan King-Togia<\/a> seemingly fighting over a single spot, but neither putting together convincing 2025 campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St George Illawarra Dragons have expressed interest in Jake Averillo, who is suddenly facing an unclear future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-305163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305163","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=305163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}