told this masthead<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\nKoloamatangi admits that had he been single with no children, it would have been easy to stay put. But the Dragons offer will go a long way to setting him up financially for life after football \u2013 which, he said, would give him more of a chance to enjoy quality time with fianc\u00e9e Heavenly, and his daughter and son, Psalms and Saint.<\/p>\n
\u2018Wayne gave me my debut. I\u2019d trust him with my life.\u2019<\/p>\n
Keaon Koloamatangi<\/p>\n
Heavenly was happy for her husband to do whatever he wanted. She never followed rugby league until she started dating Koloamatangi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time Heavenly watched me play, she thought the \u2018six-again\u2019 bell meant it was half-time,\u201d Koloamatangi said.<\/p>\n
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan wanted a leader for the club\u2019s forward pack, and Koloamatangi fits that bill. His experience will be invaluable for St George Illawarra\u2019s young forwards, including the likes of the Couchman brothers, Toby and Ryan, both 22, Hamish Stewart and Dylan Egan, both 21, Loko Pasifiki Tonga, 20, and 19-year-old Jacob Halangahu.<\/p>\n
If those players remain fit, their best years will start unfolding during Koloamatangi\u2019s own prime.<\/p>\n
![\"Rabbitohs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dfeafe9b08246d0e2f64f62422ea5a2f13339f39.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Flanagan could not ignore the feedback he received from Damien Cook and Jaydn Su\u2019A, two Dragons who played with Koloamatangi at Souths.<\/p>\n
But back to that phone call with Bennett.<\/p>\n
\u201cWayne was the first person at Souths I called,\u201d Koloamatangi said.\u201cI didn\u2019t know how the conversation was going to go. But he was proud of me. Wayne gave me my debut. I\u2019d trust him with my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said to me, \u2018You probably never dreamt of being in the position you are now, and how far you\u2019ve come\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty overwhelmed by the support he gave me. He understood I made the decision based on what was best for my family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d actually never been in the position where I was feeling wanted by a few clubs \u2013 the only thing I\u2019ve known is the Rabbitohs. I wanted to look after my kids. If I had no kids or a wife, it might have been a different story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also excited by the challenge of going to the Dragons, working with their young forwards, and basically getting out of my comfort zone, which would help me grow as a player, a father and man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The challenge now for Koloamatangi is to reproduce his 2025 form and not allow the intensity to fade now he has inked a new deal.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
Burgess had a crack every season. So does one of Koloamatangi\u2019s favourite players and fellow Tongan, Jason Taumalolo. For the record, Koloamatangi will wait until later this year to make a call on siding with Australia or Tonga at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam and Jason were at their best week in week out, and it\u2019s that consistency I want in my game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you\u2019ve got guys like Payne Haas, Addin [Fonua-Blake] and Pat Carrigan, they\u2019re among the best players on the field every week, and that\u2019s why their teams win. Their backs will get the accolades because they have gone out and laid the platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel good about this year. I\u2019m excited. I\u2019m hoping we can go out with a championship. I actually think we can win it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSam said, \u2018Wayne, he\u2019s going to be good\u2019. I said, \u2018Do you really believe that?\u2019 And he said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-450196","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\/450196","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=450196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Keaon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/9a31afd1e0bef28780f02542a912777c14fce266.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n