{"id":741288,"date":"2026-06-17T00:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741288\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T00:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:59:10","slug":"nrl-2026-kodi-nikorima-in-career-best-form-will-he-be-replaced-have-the-dolphins-signed-george-williams-news-rumours-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/741288\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Kodi Nikorima in career best form, will he be replaced, Have the Dolphins signed George Williams, news, rumours, contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dolphins\u2019 reported signing of UK half George Williams for 2027 has come into question amid the club\u2019s scorching form. <\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outside of the Panthers, who are the comp\u2019s runaway leaders at the midway point of the season, the Dolphins are the hottest team in the NRL. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Six straight wins has the Phins airborne. Not only that, but their two losses prior were to the Warriors and aforementioned Panthers by a combined three points.<\/p>\n

A huge reason for their ascent up the ladder this season is the combination of their halves Isaiya Katoa and Kodi Nikorima.<\/p>\n

Katoa is the club\u2019s long-term halfback while Nikorima doesn\u2019t have a contract beyond this season. <\/p>\n

Instead, reports indicate that the Dolphins have signed Super League star and former Raiders half Williams for next year. <\/p>\n

It means Nikorima\u2019s NRL career is in limbo, although coach Kristian Woolf hinted during a post-match press conference that the club are trying to work out an extension. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of water to go under the bridge before next season, but NRL360 host Braith Anasta believes it would be \u201ccrazy\u201d if the Dolphins replaced Nikorima with Williams in the halves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI find this fascinating. The way he\u2019s playing, the combination he has with Katoa and they\u2019ve had that combination now for a long time and they\u2019re actually getting better \u2026 I shouldn\u2019t imagine he\u2019s going to cost them top dollar. It\u2019ll be decent but not top dollar,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge Williams is not the best player in the Super League and no disrespect to the Super League but it doesn\u2019t compare to the NRL, especially in the halves. We\u2019ve seen that. I find that crazy they would go with Williams over Nikorima.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foxsports.com.au\u2019s Paul Crawley agreed.<\/p>\n

He wonders why the Dolphins haven\u2019t done everything they can to re-sign the crafty Nikorima.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a very good side. They\u2019ve got good depth. They\u2019ve got tough forward, speed in the backs. I was watching last week and you\u2019ve watched him every week, Kodi Nikorima for the life of me I just can\u2019t work out why they don\u2019t want to re-sign him,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsaiya Katoa gets a lot of recognition and rightly so but Kodi Nikorima is not far off their second or third-most important player. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe seems at 32 to have hit that sweet spot in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while it\u2019s widely believed a deal is done, the Dolphins are yet to confirm the Williams signing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dolphins\u2019 reported signing of UK half George Williams for 2027 has come into question amid the club\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-741288","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\/741288","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=741288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}