{"id":796231,"date":"2026-07-12T21:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:31:12","slug":"the-mole-2026-scott-drinkwater-makes-north-queensland-cowboys-regret-dragons-exit-contract-owen-pattie-canberra-riders-matt-dufty-south-sydney-rabbitohs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796231\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mole 2026: Scott Drinkwater makes North Queensland Cowboys regret Dragons exit contract, Owen Pattie Canberra Riders, Matt Dufty South Sydney Rabbitohs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cowboys<\/a> may live to rue their decision to let veteran playmaker Scott\u00a0Drinkwater go to the Dragons<\/a> in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Drinkwater is having a fantastic farewell tour of North Queensland, icing the all-important field goal that won Sunday\u2019s golden point thriller against Manly<\/a> to put the Cowboys back on track for finals footy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scott Drinkwater celebrates his field goal in golden point. \u00a0Jason McCawley<\/p>\n

Throw in the fact that he leads the NRL<\/a> in line break assists, is equal third in try assists and you can see what a massive contribution he makes to the team\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

A brilliant attacking weapon who plays what he sees in front of him, Drinkwater has match-winning class that will be difficult to replace.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys do have some good young players coming through – but it may take them several years to get to the high standards Drinkwater has set in Townsville.<\/p>\n

The Sea Eagles<\/a>, meanwhile, have hit the wall, with losses in three of their last four games, with Sunday\u2019s defeat their first under new coach Kieran Foran<\/a> at Fortress Brookvale.<\/p>\n

NRL reject demanding full-time deal<\/p>\n

Matt Dufty<\/a> is forcing South Sydney<\/a>\u2019s hand for a new contract despite being signed as a virtual afterthought earlier this season.<\/p>\n

There were plenty of smirks from the critics when the Bunnies handed Dragons and Warrington reject Dufty a NSW Cup deal a few months ago.<\/p>\n

But Dufty is playing the best football of his career and Souths now have plenty to think about.<\/p>\n

They have two top class fullbacks in Latrell Mitchell<\/a> and Jye Gray and Dufty isn\u2019t even listed in their top 30 players.<\/p>\n

But the tiny speedster was best on ground in the narrow 26-24 win over the Knights on Sunday<\/a>, out-pointing the great Kalyn Ponga<\/a> in the process.<\/p>\n

Dufty ran for 215 metres – the most of anyone on the field – and finished with three try assists and a couple of line breaks.<\/p>\n

The Bunnies had better make a move to re-sign the talented fullback – because if they don\u2019t, another club will.<\/p>\n

Teddy successor emerges<\/p>\n

Cody Ramsey may well have stamped himself as the successor to James Tedesco<\/a>\u2019s fullback throne at the Roosters<\/a> with a five-star display against the Eels on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cody Ramsey of the Roosters passes the ball against the Eels.\u00a0Izhar Khan<\/p>\n

On an emotional night for the Roosters, with Daniel Tupou<\/a> celebrating his 300th game with a hat trick, Ramsey\u2019s effort was overshadowed.<\/p>\n

But make no mistake, he was clearly the man of the match and his running game proved the difference in a 28-12 defeat of a gallant Eels outfit.<\/p>\n

The Roosters have a decision to make, with Ramsey, who has made a remarkable comeback after nearly losing his life to a rare stomach disease a couple of years ago, able to talk to rival clubs in November.<\/p>\n

The flying fullback may choose to go to the open market, with his chances at the Roosters limited behind the reliable Tedesco.<\/p>\n

Why Raiders future is bright<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big call considering he is a 22-year-old with just four games in the starting side this year, but Owen Pattie IS the future of the Canberra Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The nuggety hooker, who Ricky Stuart<\/a> has been keeping up his sleeve for much of the past two seasons, was unleashed on the Bulldogs<\/a> on Saturday night and was instrumental in the Raiders\u2019 40-16 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pattie kicked two 40\/20s, both of which led to tries, and had a hand in several more in the Raiders\u2019 best display of 2026 to date.<\/p>\n

\"Owen<\/p>\n

Owen Pattie of the Raiders.\u00a0NRL Imagery<\/p>\n

The youngster has a touch of Harry Grant<\/a> to his ball play out of dummy half and with hooker becoming such a key position in the modern game, he is set for a huge career in the national capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs were terrible in a home game they were expected to win and their season continues to spiral out of control, with more questions than answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phins in danger of imploding<\/p>\n

The next few days will be the hardest time in Kristian Woolf<\/a>\u2018s coaching career as he attempts to resuscitate the Dolphins<\/a>\u2019 spluttering finals challenge.<\/p>\n

The Phins have gone from equal second favourites to win the premiership to a basket case after a shock 66-0 loss at home<\/a> to a rampaging Cronulla<\/a> team on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Phins were without their Origin<\/a> contingent but even the return of the likes of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a>, Selwyn Cobbo<\/a> and co. may not be able to paper up the cracks.<\/p>\n

In their short time in the NRL, the Phins have had a habit of collapsing in the run-in to the finals and are in danger of imploding again.<\/p>\n

Back to back losses – and the magnitude of the Sharks massacre, have the Dolphins on tilt and they are sorely missing the cool leadership of brilliant halfback Isaiya Katoa<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woolf will need to make wholesale changes, hold a brutal review session and tell his team that performance that included 42 missed tackles – is unacceptable for a team with premiership ambitions.<\/p>\n

The Sharks were superb, with halves Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes<\/a> carving up the defence with embarrassing ease. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Tigers fans set for more heartbreak<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tough being a Tigers<\/a> fan in the last decade or more.<\/p>\n

Tigers fans are used to disappointment but this season, thought they had turned it all around with a flying start out of the blocks in the early rounds.<\/p>\n

But ever since Jarome Luai<\/a> signed THAT deal with PNG<\/a>, it\u2019s all fallen apart\u2026 eight losses in the last 10 games, Luai now set to go a year early<\/a> and a club clearly in crisis.<\/p>\n

The Tigers haven\u2019t won a Friday night game at Campbelltown for 16 years – when Benji Marshall<\/a> kicked a field goal to get them home – and were thumped 32-6 by the rampaging Warriors<\/a> to end a bad week.<\/p>\n

Trouble on the field, trouble off it – the Tigers are a rabble yet again\u2026 finals football is no hope and there are still plenty more potential heart-breaking games to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys may live to rue their decision to let veteran playmaker Scott\u00a0Drinkwater go to the Dragons in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-796231","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\/796231","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=796231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}