{"id":657007,"date":"2026-05-08T04:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657007\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:52:16","slug":"nrl-2026-dragons-exodus-continues-as-skipper-damien-cook-signs-with-english-super-league-club-castleford-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657007\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Dragons exodus continues as skipper Damien Cook signs with English Super League club Castleford, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dragons skipper Damien Cook is the latest star to decide to leave the Red V, in what is quickly becoming a serious exodus.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old had been in discussions about an extension with the Dragons until recently, but talks were put on hold when Shane Flanagan was axed.<\/p>\n<p>And now the hooker has decided to take his talents elsewhere, signing with English Super League club Castleford on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Cook is the second star to quit the Red V in a matter of weeks, with Queensland forward Jaydn Su\u2019A opting out of the final year of his deal to join the Eels on a three-year deal from next season.<\/p>\n<p>While boom prop Loko Jnr Pasifiki Tonga requested a release from his contract before ultimately backflipping on his decision after being reinstated in the first grade squad.<\/p>\n<p>Cook has played 248 NRL games, 17 State of Origin matches for NSW and four Tests for Australia, and has been the Dragons\u2019 best in a torrid 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Originally published as <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/dragons-exodus-continues-as-skipper-damien-cook-signs-with-english-super-league-club-castleford\/news-story\/c160a02711ecc3aecd19fbde02675d5f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dragons exodus continues as skipper Damien Cook signs with English Super League club Castleford<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dragons skipper Damien Cook is the latest star to decide to leave the Red V, in what is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-657007","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\/657007","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=657007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}