{"id":396547,"date":"2026-04-25T05:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396547\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T05:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T05:12:10","slug":"scott-drinkwaters-future-confirmed-full-details-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/396547\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Drinkwater’s future confirmed, full details revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> have confirmed fullback Scott Drinkwater<\/a> will exit the club at the end of 2026 to take up a contract with the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The star fullback, who is one of the best attacking players in the game and has constantly been near the top of the Dally M Medal count in recent seasons has signed a three-year deal with the Red V.<\/p>\n

That will see him become a Dragon from the start of 2027 through to the end of 2029.<\/p>\n

The dynamic fullback is a major signing for the Dragons, and their best in many years, with the club battling through a horror start to 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott is a player of genuine class in our competition, and we’re thrilled to have him commit to the Dragons from 2027,\u201d Dragons CEO Tim Watsford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings proven NRL<\/a> experience, composure, skill and an attacking instinct that will be a major asset for our club.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, we believe Scott will fit strongly with our playing group both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

What it means for the future of Clint Gutherson<\/a> remains to be seen. The Dragons co-captain has a year to run on his deal with the joint-venture, but will now need to look for another position, whether that be at centre, in the halves, or even off the bench as a utility option.<\/p>\n

Drinkwater said he was looking forward to the move south.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really looking forward to joining the Dragons and being part of what the club is building,\u201d Drinkwater said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the young talent from the area making its way through the ranks, so it’s an exciting challenge to go on this journey with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to finishing strong at the Cowboys this year and then arriving at the Dragons for 2027 to do everything I can to contribute to the team’s success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drinkwater has played 151 games for the Cowboys since joining in mid-2019, and head of football Michael Luck said he had been a fantastic asset for the club.<\/p>\n

Luck also revealed the Cowboys weren’t in a position to match the long-term offer from the Dragons, seemingly confirming earlier reports that he would not be retained beyond the end of 2027 at all in Townsville.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott has been not just a valued member of our club, but a wonderful member of the North Queensland community since he arrived eight years ago,\u201d Cowboys Football Club CEO Micheal Luck<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott received a long-term offer from another club, which we were not in the position to match. He remains an integral member of our squad for the remainder of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish Scott and his young family the very best in their next adventure. They will always be welcome at our club.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cowboys will turn to either Tom Chester<\/a> or Jaxon Purdue<\/a> as their long-term fullback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Queensland Cowboys have confirmed fullback Scott Drinkwater will exit the club at the end of 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-396547","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\/396547","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=396547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}