{"id":815295,"date":"2026-07-21T22:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815295\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:53:15","slug":"nrl-news-2026-the-mole-exclusive-former-dragons-star-junior-amone-in-sights-of-clubs-after-queensland-cup-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/815295\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: The Mole exclusive, former Dragons star Junior Amone in sights of clubs after Queensland Cup return"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least two clubs are considering throwing former Dragons<\/a> and Tonga pivot Junior Amone<\/a> a career lifeline – if he is cleared to return by the NRL<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old made a successful comeback with Wests Devils in the Illawarra league last month after being found guilty of a much-publicised assault on a tradesman in 2022, which saw him deregistered by the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TOWNSVILLE,<\/p>\n

Junior Amone is eyeing off an NRL return.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He has since been snapped up by Wynnum in the Queensland Cup<\/a> competition and is playing good football, despite more than 1000 days out of the top grade.<\/p>\n

Amone narrowly avoided a jail term for the attack but was handed a court-enforced intensive correction order for the assault conviction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was again in strife in 2024 for allegedly spitting in a woman\u2019s face<\/a>, a charge he pleaded guilty to and earned an additional two-year community corrections order.<\/p>\n

But those close to Amone say he has now put his bad boy days behind him and he has a steady partner and small child who are keeping him grounded.<\/p>\n

Nine.com.au has been told two clubs are monitoring Amone\u2019s form at Wynnum and may offer him a train-and-trial contract in 2027, if the NRL clears him.<\/p>\n

The onus is on the clubs keen on Amone to attempt to have a contract registered for next season, which would be the first step before any decision is made by the NRL on whether a contract should be granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amone played 54 games for the Dragons after debuting as a teenager and was one of the club\u2019s most promising young players prior to being deregistered. <\/p>\n

Great\u2019s grandson set for Comm Games<\/p>\n

The grandson of Sydney Roosters<\/a> legend Bary \u201cBunny\u201d Reilly will swim for Australia in the Para-Commonwealth Games that start this week.<\/p>\n

Beau Matthews is rated a huge chance of bringing home gold in the Men\u2019s 100m Breaststroke SB9 event, in which he will start favourite.<\/p>\n

Matthews rates his grandfather, who died five years ago, as his inspiration.<\/p>\n

Reilly, who won back-to-back premierships with the Roosters in 1974-75, was known throughout the game as \u2018The Axe\u2019 because of his ruthless tackling style.<\/p>\n

As a tribute to the former star second-rower, Matthews is known as \u2018Tomahawk\u2019 among his teammates – as in \u2018little axe\u2019.<\/p>\n

Rare history created by Titans<\/p>\n

Gold Coast<\/a> don\u2019t set many records in the rugby league world, but they\u2019ve achieved one last weekend that few people noticed.<\/p>\n

In the NRLW, they thumped the Eels 50-12, months after smashing them 52-10 in the men\u2019s competition. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Titans winger Jaime Chapman against the Eels. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

That makes them the first club in league history to score half-centuries against the same opponent in the NRL and NRLW in the one season.<\/p>\n

Probably more one for the trivia buffs, but a record nonetheless. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Raiders chasing Kiwi teenager<\/p>\n

More and more NRL clubs are raiding New Zealand for talent, and the Raiders are in the thick of it.<\/p>\n

They are delighted with a 17-year-old centre they have signed from Christchurch who will join them next season – Hoani Kahukiwa.<\/p>\n

The youngster played in the Warriors system this year in Harold Matthews Cup (under 17s) and was also making plenty of heads turn in rugby union.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s decided league is where his future lies and the teenager will cross the Tasman to link up with the Raiders in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least two clubs are considering throwing former Dragons and Tonga pivot Junior Amone a career lifeline –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-815295","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\/815295","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=815295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}