{"id":71390,"date":"2025-08-15T23:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T23:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71390\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T23:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T23:41:07","slug":"bulldogs-utility-set-to-depart-inks-three-year-contract-chasing-fresh-start-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/71390\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs utility set to depart, inks three-year contract chasing fresh start – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without a contract at the moment for next season, utility back Blake Taaffe<\/a> has reportedly agreed to a new contract which will not only see him depart the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> or the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of five members of the Bulldogs squad that are off-contract at the end of the season, Taaffe has only made two first-grade appearances this season, predominantly being used in the NSW Cup<\/a> before going down with injury.<\/p>\n

Failing to cement a regular spot in the club’s NRL<\/a> line-up since he arrived from the South Sydney Rabbitohs<\/a>, he has continually been used as an 18th or 19th man and only made 12 NRL<\/a> appearances for the club.<\/p>\n

Failing to find a new deal with the Bulldogs, Taaffe has decided to leave the NRL<\/a> competition after agreeing to a three-year contract to join the Castleford Tigers<\/a> in the Super League<\/a>, according to The Daily Telegraph.<\/a><\/p>\n

The move to Castleford comes following a two-season stint with the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> in which he was poised to be their long-term fullback at the time but lost his position to Connor Tracey<\/a> who hasn’t looked back and made the No.1 jersey his own.<\/p>\n

In May, he revealed to Zero Tackle that although his ideal decision was to remain at Belmore, he understood that rugby league is a business and his tenure in the Blue and White was coming to a close.<\/p>\n

“I’d love to stay around here. What the club’s done in the past few years and the people that have brought into it, it’s awesome,” Taaffe told Zero Tackle.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I’ve got a good relationship with the boys here and the staff. I’d love to stay, but just depends on what happens.<\/p>\n

“Rugby league’s a crazy game and at the end of the day it’s a business and whatever happens, happens.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Without a contract at the moment for next season, utility back Blake Taaffe has reportedly agreed to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-71390","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\/71390","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=71390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}