{"id":605857,"date":"2026-04-14T08:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605857\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T08:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:22:11","slug":"dragons-crisis-deepens-as-young-gun-requests-early-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605857\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragons crisis deepens as young gun requests early exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> rising star Loko Pasifiki Tonga<\/a> has requested permission to explore his options around the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The development comes after he was once again overlooked for Shane Flanagan’s side, who have started the season zero and six.<\/p>\n

Changes were expected on Tuesday for this weekend’s clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>, but barring the forced change in the centres with Moses Suli<\/a> out injured, Flanagan has not made a single change to his side.<\/p>\n

That means Pasifiki Tonga<\/a>, who ran for 252 metres, scored a try and had almost 80 post contact metres in the NSW Cup<\/a> last weekend, will once again miss out.<\/p>\n

He played ten games last year, but hasn’t registered a minute of first-grade in 2026.<\/p>\n

Zero Tackle understands the prop has been disgruntled over the situation for a number of weeks now, but News Corp has revealed things came to a head on Tuesday, with his management requesting permission to explore options.<\/p>\n

Without permission, Pasifiki Tonga<\/a>, who re-signed with the club last year until the end of 2027, is tied to the Red V for the remainder of this season and the next one, and will not be able to test the open market until November 1.<\/p>\n

The Dragons are understood to have no desire to let him go, but Pasifki Tonga<\/a> could find himself at a new club this year if a move happens before the June 30 deadline.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Dragons have a talented crop of junior forwards in their system, with Hamish Stewart<\/a>, the Couchman brothers and Dylan Egan<\/a> all making their presence felt at various times.<\/p>\n

Jacob Halangahu<\/a>, who alongside Pasifki Tonga<\/a> is on the fringe of the 19-man squad, is also viewed as a rising star, but it could be that the young prop who played junior Origin and played in the Dragons’ drought-breaking SG Ball win in 2024, is the best of the lot.<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra’s refusal to make any changes comes with Shane Flanagan<\/a> under enormous pressure for his job, although a board meeting slated for today is understood to have been pushed back by a fortnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra Dragons rising star Loko Pasifiki Tonga has requested permission to explore his options around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-605857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605857","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=605857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}