{"id":842295,"date":"2026-08-03T17:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842295\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T17:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:46:31","slug":"nrl-news-2026-tom-dearden-shuts-down-sydney-rumours-commits-to-north-queensland-cowboys-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/842295\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Tom Dearden shuts down Sydney rumours, commits to North Queensland Cowboys, press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cowboys<\/a> captain Tom Dearden<\/a> has shut down \u201cnonsense\u201d rumours that he is looking to leave the club and move to Sydney for personal reasons.<\/p>\n

Dearden has endured a tough year, spending time on the sidelines with a syndesmosis injury<\/a> that put him out of the entire State of Origin<\/a> series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a difficult year for Tom Dearden.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The star halfback returned a few weeks ago before suffering a fresh leg injury, which is expected to keep him off the field for at least another fortnight.<\/p>\n

While dealing with the injuries, Dearden has been heavily linked with an early exit from North Queensland, despite being signed until the end of 2029.<\/p>\n

The rumours centred around Dearden\u2019s pregnant partner, Millie Oliver, and his potential desire to move interstate for personal reasons.<\/p>\n

However, in a strong response on Monday afternoon, the 25-year-old set the record straight and pledged his commitment to the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a fair bit of speculation getting around at the moment, there\u2019s been a lot of suggestions that I wanted to move or leave the club,\u201d Dearden said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanna make sure [people know] that\u2019s not the case at all, I don\u2019t feel like I should have to get up here and explain myself against speculation<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been a whole lot of nonsense. I\u2019ve got my private life with a partner who\u2019s pregnant and I\u2019d like for that all to be kept private. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m committed to the Cowboys until the end of 2029 and I think it\u2019s a bit silly that you have to get up here and speak to a bit of nonsense that\u2019s going around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the rumours and suggestions he wanted to leave Townsville next year had affected him away from the field, Dearden admitted it was \u201cdisappointing\u201d to have his personal life become a talking point. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s had an impact on the personal life – I\u2019ve got a pregnant partner and I think when there\u2019s speculation getting around like that, people are reading that and it gives them questions to ask and you always have to answer to people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a bit disappointing with all the speculation around that and there\u2019s been no suggestions or no thinking about not being committed to the Cowboys. <\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Dearden with his partner Millie Oliver.\u00a0Instagram\/@millieeoliver<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not recommitting or anything like that, I\u2019ve always been committed to the Cowboys and none of that has ever changed, so it\u2019s a bit disappointing that my partner and family have had to deal with a lot of questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dearden said he hopes to return from injury after the side\u2019s round 25 bye. <\/p>\n

During his absence last weekend, the Cowboys suffered a humiliating 82-12 defeat at the hands of the Sydney Roosters<\/a> that has hurt their finals chances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cowboys captain Tom Dearden has shut down \u201cnonsense\u201d rumours that he is looking to leave the club and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-842295","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\/842295","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=842295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}