{"id":341438,"date":"2025-12-11T10:05:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T10:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341438\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T10:05:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T10:05:41","slug":"cowboys-utility-officially-released-amid-super-league-interest-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341438\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys utility officially released amid Super League interest &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/north-queensland-cowboys\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> continue to finalise their squad ahead of the 2026 season, confirming the departure of a seasoned utility.<\/p>\n<p>With 115 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> games under his belt, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/karl-lawton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Karl Lawton<\/a> has been granted an immediate release from the final year of his contract to take up an opportunity in the UK <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It was reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk\/news\/hull-kr-identify-nrl-forward-1537849\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Out Rugby League<\/a>\u00a0that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/british-teams\/hull-kingston-rovers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hull KR<\/a> was interested in securing the 30-year-old&#8217;s services for next season.<\/p>\n<p>2025 marked Lawton&#8217;s 10th season in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a>, having also played for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/manly-sea-eagles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/new-zealand-warriors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand Warriors<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/gold-coast-titans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, he only managed 11 appearances for the Townsville side, failing to cement himself in the team.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-228914\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"NRL Rd 16 \u2013 Roosters v Cowboys\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2221430829-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA &#8211; JUNE 22: Karl Lawton of the Cowboys passes the ball during the round 16 NRL match between Sydney Roosters and North Queensland Cowboys at Allianz Stadium, on June 22, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Cowboys General Manager of Football, Michael Luck, gave his best wishes to Lawton ahead of his next chapter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We wish Karl and his family well in their next adventures,&#8221; Luck told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cowboys.com.au\/news\/2025\/12\/11\/cowboys-release-lawton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">club&#8217;s website<\/a>,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; The North Queensland Cowboys continue to finalise their squad ahead of the 2026 season, confirming the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-341438","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\/341438","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=341438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}