{"id":960329,"date":"2026-11-11T07:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T07:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/960329\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T07:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T07:48:15","slug":"flegler-closes-on-dolphins-departure-tours-rival-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/960329\/","title":{"rendered":"Flegler closes on Dolphins departure, tours rival club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> prop Thomas Flegler has toured facilities at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/north-queensland-cowboys\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> as he leans towards leaving the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The forward, off-contract at the end of 2027, was eligible to negotiate with rivals from November 1, and it has been floated in recent weeks that he could be leaning towards exiting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That may not come as a surprise given the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> tight salary cap, which has already been used to dish out extensions for Kulikeu Finefeuiaki, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/selwyn-cobbo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Selwyn Cobbo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/hamiso-tabuai-fidow\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow<\/a>, while both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jack-bostock\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Bostock<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/herbie-farnworth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Herbie Farnworth<\/a> could leave the club.<\/p>\n<p>If the duo leave, then there would likely be more money available for the Queensland Origin representative, but it&#8217;s now believed Flegler may not want to stay at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> anyway.<\/p>\n<p>In the strongest sign yet the forward is weighing up moving on, he was spotted this week touring facilities at the Cowboys per a News Corp report.<\/p>\n<p>The Cowboys are desperate to reinvigorate their forward pack, and while it&#8217;s tipped they are interested in having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jason-taumalolo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jason Taumalolo<\/a> play on in 2028 if his body holds up, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/coen-hess\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coen Hess<\/a> could well be heading in to the final year of his career, and the need for a forward pack aggressor to lead from the front has never been more evident.<\/p>\n<p>Flegler, noted for his aggression which, as costly as it can be sometimes can flip momentum of games, would fill the void beautifully for Todd Payten&#8217;s side who still have half their Top 30 to fill for 2028, and with Scott Drinkwater&#8217;s departure at the end of this year, and a pay reduction for Taumalolo in 2028 if he plays on alongside that, will have plenty of money to spend.<\/p>\n<p>That could see them lodge an offer for Flegler similar to what he is on now &#8211; believed to be around the $900,000 mark at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s understood the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a> will make an offer for Flegler, although it won&#8217;t be comparable to what he is currently earning.<\/p>\n<p>He spent the best part of two years sidelined with a shoulder injury at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dolphins<\/a>, and while he was solid in his return to the game during 2026, the back-end of the year, particularly the finals series, left plenty to be desired in terms of performance.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear at this stage if an offer from the Cowboys has already been received by Flegler&#8217;s camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins prop Thomas Flegler has toured facilities at the North Queensland Cowboys as he leans towards leaving the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":960330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-960329","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\/960329","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=960329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}