{"id":430555,"date":"2026-05-16T12:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430555\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T12:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T12:32:15","slug":"gould-spotted-with-premiership-winning-hooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430555\/","title":{"rendered":"Gould spotted with premiership-winning hooker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Verrills<\/a> has emerged as a potential target for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs<\/a> after being spotted meeting with general manager Phil Gould during Magic Round<\/a> in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Verrills is currently on the books of the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>, but his future at the club appears increasingly uncertain with his contract set to expire at season’s end and an extension now considered unlikely.<\/p>\n

An image supplied to ESPN shows Verrills in discussion with Gould, now suggesting that the Bulldogs are positioning themselves to make a move for the dummy-half.<\/p>\n

The Titans have already begun planning for life without Verrills, with the club opting to prioritise young hooker Oliver Pascoe<\/a> as their long-term No.9 option.<\/p>\n

Verrills was notably omitted from Gold Coast’s 22-man squad to face the Newcastle Knights<\/a> in Brisbane on Sunday, with Pascoe instead named in the starting side.<\/p>\n

Interest in Verrills has also stretched beyond the NRL<\/a>, with Super League<\/a> clubs monitoring his availability as his contract situation developed in Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

The sighting of Gould meeting with Verrills will inevitably draw attention given the Bulldogs’ recent history of landing players following similar encounters.<\/p>\n

Back in November 2021, Gould was photographed dining with hooker Reed Mahoney<\/a> prior to Mahoney eventually joining Canterbury.<\/p>\n

Across his NRL<\/a> career, Verrills has amassed 112 first-grade appearances, including 48 games for the Sydney Roosters<\/a> before his move to the Titans, where he has since added a further 64 matches.<\/p>\n

He was part of the Roosters side that claimed the 2019 premiership, starting at hooker in their grand final victory over the Canberra Raiders<\/a>, cementing his reputation as a big-game performer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Verrills has emerged as a potential target for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs after being spotted meeting with general…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-430555","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\/430555","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=430555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}