{"id":366797,"date":"2026-01-12T22:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366797\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:30:20","slug":"james-mcdonnell-plans-leeds-rhinos-exit-as-keenan-palasia-extends-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366797\/","title":{"rendered":"James McDonnell plans Leeds Rhinos exit as Keenan Palasia extends stay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Leeds Rhinos back-rower James McDonnell is set to depart Headingley at the end of the 2026 Super League season to pursue opportunities in the NRL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 25-year-old, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-league\/62273254\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed by Leeds in 2022<\/a> from Wigan Warriors, will reach the end of his contract at the end of the season, after extending his stay for a further year in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The former Ireland international has scored 15 tries across his 83 appearances for the club so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He will join team-mate Harry Newman, who is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-league\/articles\/cn0k52kxd9xo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also departing at the end of the season,<\/a> to join Perth Bears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Meanwhile, Samoa international forward Keenan Palasia has extended his contract to remain with Leeds until the end of the 2029 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 28-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-league\/articles\/ce9jy593pyxo\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joined Leeds<\/a> from National Rugby League side Gold Coast Titans in October 2024 and has since made 31 appearances for the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m really pleased to get it all sorted before the season starts,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therhinos.co.uk\/article\/22781\/huge-boost-for-rhinos-as-palasia-agrees-long-term-future\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said Palasia., external<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That was the main thing for me \u2013 to get it done so I can fully focus on my footy, put my best foot forward and hopefully help this club win some silverware.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos back-rower James McDonnell is set to depart Headingley at the end of the 2026 Super League&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-366797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}