{"id":945833,"date":"2026-10-30T02:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T02:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945833\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T02:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T02:00:16","slug":"five-november-1-nrl-contract-targets-st-george-illawarra-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945833\/","title":{"rendered":"Five November 1 NRL contract targets: St George Illawarra Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> have embarked on one of the great rebuilds of the modern era over the last 12 months, the fruits of which they should start to see in 2027.<\/p>\n

There is little point talking about the 2026 campaign from a Dragons point of view.<\/p>\n

It was almost over before it began, bombing to multiple losses before Shane Flanagan<\/a> was axed.<\/p>\n

A young footy side with veterans not pulling their weight found some improvement under Dean Young<\/a>, and it’s that youth, combined with multiple players about to join the club, that paves the way for a Red V turnaround in 2027.<\/p>\n

But the rebuilding job isn’t done yet, with more departures likely at the end of 2027 and a couple of clear gaps in the squad that ultimately need to be filled if they are going to push to the top end of town in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Here is the state of play for the Dragons just days out from November 1.<\/p>\n

Current 2028 squad<\/p>\n

Daniel Atkinson<\/a>, Ryan Couchman<\/a>, Toby Couchman<\/a>, Scott Drinkwater<\/a>, Dylan Egan<\/a>, Jacob Halangahu<\/a>, Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a>, Jacob Liddle<\/a>, Luke Metcalf<\/a>, Kodi Nikorima<\/a>, Loko Pasifiki Tonga<\/a>, Kade Reed<\/a>, Phillip Sami<\/a>, Hamish Stewart<\/a>, Jacob Webster<\/a><\/p>\n

Off-contract at the end of 2027<\/p>\n

Hayden Buchanan<\/a>, David Fale<\/a>, Kyle Flanagan<\/a>, Clint Gutherson<\/a>, Valentine Holmes<\/a>, Josh Kerr<\/a>, Lyhkan King-Togia<\/a>, Cyrus Stanley-Traill<\/a>, Moses Suli<\/a>, Nick Tsougranis<\/a>, Setu Tu<\/a>, Leeroy Weatherall<\/a><\/p>\n

Current 2028 best 19<\/p>\n

1. Scott Drinkwater<\/a>
2. Phillip Sami<\/a>
3. No player signed.
4. No player signed.
5. No player signed.
6. Kodi Nikorima<\/a>
7. Luke Metcalf<\/a>
8. Keaon Koloamatangi<\/a>
9. Jacob Liddle<\/a>
10. Toby Couchman<\/a>
11. Dylan Egan<\/a>
12. Hamish Stewart<\/a>
13. Ryan Couchman<\/a><\/p>\n

Interchange
14. Daniel Atkinson<\/a>
15. Jacob Halangahu<\/a>
16. Loko Pasifiki Tonga<\/a>
17. Jacob Webster<\/a>
18. Kade Reed<\/a>
19. No player signed.<\/p>\n

The Dragons have a clear need: outside backs.<\/p>\n

The salary cap, much to the surprise of the general consensus, will have wiggle room given the looming departures of Clint Gutherson<\/a>, Valentine Holmes<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

The forwards certainly won’t be the focus here given their enormous youth list, but they need centres and wingers, and likely, a back-up dummy half given Connor Watson<\/a> is only spending a gap year in 2027 at the club.<\/p>\n

Here are five possible targets for the Dragons from November 1.<\/p>\n

Option 1: Jack Bostock (The Dolphins)<\/p>\n

If all reports are to be believed, Jack Bostock<\/a> is very likely to move to the Dragons in 2028.<\/p>\n

The towering outside back has had an outstanding season for the Dolphins<\/a>\u00a0and is exactly what the Dragons need.<\/p>\n

He is leaning towards heading back to his junior club for a multitude of reasons, but money and being back around his family appear to be the main ones.<\/p>\n

It would be a huge recruitment win for the Red V – and he is the player they should attack with everything they have for 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St George Illawarra Dragons have embarked on one of the great rebuilds of the modern era over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-945833","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\/945833","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=945833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}