![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765267878_621_r1576633_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBut the new deal will keep the dual premiership winner at the Bulldogs until at least the end of 2028, by which time he will be 33.<\/p>\n
Kikau has become prized by coach Cameron Ciraldo for his leadership qualities, filling in as captain when Stephen Crichton was unavailable in 2025.<\/p>\n
He notably refused to have scans on a facial injury in September to remain available for the Bulldogs’ finals campaign, which ended with a semi-final loss to his former club Penrith.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy to be staying at the Bulldogs,” Kikau said.<\/p>\n
“I love being part of what we’re building here. We’ve made great progress over the past couple of years, but we want to achieve more – I want to help this club win its next premiership.”<\/p>\n
Viliame Kikau of the Bulldogs in action against the Warriors.\u00a0Matt King\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kikau has played 54 games for the Bulldogs since arriving for an injury-plagued first season in 2023 and was the club’s player of the year the following season.<\/p>\n
He has become known for his high-quality ball-running and effort areas, especially charge-downs, across 177 NRL games.<\/p>\n
Kikau’s deal looms as yet another blow at the recruitment table for the Bears, who are yet to land a marquee on-field signing for their 2027 debut.<\/p>\n
Scott Sorensen, Siua Wong, Keaon Koloamatangi and Angus Crichton are among other top-line forwards without deals beyond 2026.<\/p>\n
Kikau’s former Bulldogs teammate Toby Sexton will join the Bears for their first season after a one-year stint in the Super League.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs have welcomed former Newcastle prop Leo Thompson to the club for 2027 as they look to improve on this season’s third-placed finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury have kept Viliame Kikau out of the Perth Bears’ clutches by signing the second-rower to a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-336728","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\/336728","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=336728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}