{"id":393733,"date":"2026-04-23T12:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393733\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:47:09","slug":"another-star-outside-back-rejects-dragons-contract-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/393733\/","title":{"rendered":"Another star outside back rejects Dragons contract offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> have been dealt a further blow with another star declining an offer to join the Red V.<\/p>\n

As reported by the Daily Telegraph<\/a>, Jake Averillo<\/a> has knocked back an offer from the Dragons to extend his time at the Dolphins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Averillo, who was without a contract for 2027, met with club officials in Wollongong before the season, however, will remain in Redcliffe beyond this year.<\/p>\n

He joins his teammates Trai Fuller<\/a> and Selwyn Cobbo<\/a> as players who have declined a contract tabled by the Dragons, who are desperately looking to add attacking spark to their backline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fuller was offered a short-term contract at the Dragons for an immediate release, however, opted to stay put at the Dolphins<\/a> despite only playing nine minutes for the club this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After falling out of favour at the Brisbane Broncos<\/a>, Cobbo was presented a mega-deal to make the move to the Red V for five years, valued at a reported $4.3 million.<\/p>\n

Although the six-time Origin representative has decided to stay put in Queensland, signing a one-year deal with the Dolphins<\/a> instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a huge win for the Dolphins<\/a> to lock down Averillo, who boasts plenty of speed and skill for the Redcliffe outfit, establishing himself as a strike centre who can fill all back-line positions.<\/p>\n

With Cobbo confirmed to have signed a new deal on Tuesday, and Averillo agreeing to terms for an extension, there are positive signs coming out of Redcliffe under coach Kristian Woolf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the Dragons have missed out on the Dolphins<\/a> trio, reports are surfacing from Nine that Scott Drinkwater<\/a> has agreed to terms with the side on a three-year deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After parting ways with Shane Flanagan<\/a> earlier this week, the Dragons are building into a new era and have landed their succession plan to Clint Gutherson<\/a> in the fullback role.<\/p>\n

With Dean Young<\/a> taking over the role as interim head coach for the remainder of the season, it looks like players are happy to buy into the future of the club in Wollongong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St George Illawarra Dragons have been dealt a further blow with another star declining an offer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-393733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}