{"id":656927,"date":"2026-05-08T03:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/656927\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:59:17","slug":"nrl-2026-changing-of-the-guard-for-dragons-as-second-state-of-origin-player-reportedly-quits-the-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/656927\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Changing of the guard for Dragons as second State of Origin player reportedly quits the club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran Dragons hooker Damien Cook<\/a> has reportedly signed a two-year deal to continue his career at the Castleford Tigers in England from 2027. Danny Weidler of Channel 9 reported the news on Friday, which continues a changing of the guard for St George Illawarra.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Cook had been in discussions about an extension with the Dragons until recently, but talks were put on hold when Shane Flanagan departed as coach<\/a>. It’s unlikely the Dragons would have offered a two-year deal to Cook anyway, and the deal with Castleford for 2027 and 2028 allows Cook some security.<\/p>\n

\"Damien<\/p>\n

Damien Cook (far right) is leaving the Dragons at season’s end.<\/p>\n

(Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Cook has played 248 NRL<\/a> games across stints with the Dragons, Bulldogs and Rabbitohs. He spent the majority of his career at South Sydney from 2016 to 2024, before returning to St George Illawarra where he made his NRL debut in 2013.<\/p>\n

The hooker has played 17 State of Origin games for NSW and four Tests for Australia, and has been one of the Dragons’ best in a woeful 2026 season so far. But the club is looking to the future, with 29-year-old Jacob Liddle set to become the full-time starter and NSW Cup hooker Haele Finau highly regarded and only 25 years old.<\/p>\n

State of Origin players leaving the Dragons<\/p>\n

Cook is the second State of Origin player to quit the Dragons in recent weeks, with Queensland forward Jaydn Su’A opting out of the final year of his contract to join Parramatta. Su’A had a ‘player option’ at the Dragons for 2027, but opted not to take it up in favour of a three-year deal with the Eels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Angus<\/p>\n

Damien Cook is reportedly heading to Super League in 2027.<\/p>\n

(Cameron Spencer via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Parramatta have enquired with the Dragons about getting Su’A immediately, but the Red V have reportedly denied the request. The 28-year-old Su’A has played six Origin games for the Maroons, but the Dragons are banking on youth to turn things around.<\/p>\n

With Toby Couchman, Ryan Couchman, Hamish Stewart, Dylan Egan, Jacob Halangahu and Loko Pasifiki Tonga, they boast one of the most talented young forward packs in the competition. Keaon Koloamatangi will also join from Souths in 2027 to be the leader of the pack, while Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater<\/a> and Titans winger Phillip Sami have also signed with the Dragons for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Dragons hooker Damien Cook has reportedly signed a two-year deal to continue his career at the Castleford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,20531,4420,761,762,158,251346,85,64274,317633],"class_list":["post-656927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-castleford-tigers","tag-damien-cook","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-origin-games","tag-sports","tag-the-dragons","tag-veteran-dragons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656927","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=656927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}