{"id":527632,"date":"2026-03-08T23:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527632\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T23:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T23:06:09","slug":"gagai-opens-up-on-his-nrl-future-beyond-2026-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527632\/","title":{"rendered":"Gagai opens up on his NRL future beyond 2026. – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran Novocastrian centre Dane Gagai<\/a> says he has no plans to call time on his NRL<\/a> career anytime soon, declaring he intends to keep playing beyond the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old, who has played more than 300 NRL<\/a> games and spent the bulk of his career with the Newcastle Knights<\/a> since 2012 across two stints, is off contract at the end of the year but remains determined to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve spoken to my manager, and I’m not planning on stopping, I’m not planning on slowing down,\u201d Gagai told the Newcastle Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I’ve always said, it’s not just playing as long as I can, it’s whether I lose the passion for playing the game of footy and competing, or I just can’t physically keep up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTouch wood, I’ve never had any operations, body feels good, still moving well around the park, and the passion is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gagai, a Queensland and Australian representative, reached the 300-game milestone midway through last season before signing a one-year extension with Newcastle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also secured a life membership at the Red and Blue in 2022 after he surpassed 150 games for the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gagai began his 16th season in the NRL<\/a> last weekend when the Knights defeated the North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> 28-18 in Las Vegas, finishing with the game with 109 metres from 13 runs, five tackle busts and 18 tackles, and a try assist for Dom Young.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gagai is one of six Knights players off contract at the end of the 2026 season, alongside Tyson Frizell<\/a>, Greg Marzhew<\/a>, Brodie Jones<\/a>, Tyson Gamble<\/a> and Wilson De Courcey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The veteran confirmed his immediate focus remains on Newcastle’s campaign, sharing he still believes the squad can challenge for the game’s biggest prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played in a grand final in 2021, and I believe we’ve got a squad together to put ourselves in a position to compete for one of those spots,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the focus is on 2026, but I’ll definitely be playing after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

If his future lies away from Newcastle, Gagai’s long-standing relationship with incoming Perth Bears<\/a> coach Mal Meninga<\/a> could potentially open the door to him being part of the club’s inaugural squad.<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Novocastrian centre Dane Gagai says he has no plans to call time on his NRL career anytime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-527632","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\/527632","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=527632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}