{"id":591359,"date":"2026-05-18T22:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591359\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:25:14","slug":"damien-cook-reveals-how-castleford-tigers-coach-sold-cas-vegas-move-to-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591359\/","title":{"rendered":"Damien Cook reveals how Castleford Tigers coach sold \u2018Cas Vegas\u2019 move to him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers have started their recruitment for 2027 early with two NRL players headlining the deals and the first of those, Damien Cook, has revealed how the switch happened.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that he has confirmed Ryan Carr to have a major influence on the move, with the Castleford Tigers boss formerly an assistant at Cook\u2019s St George Illawarra Dragons.<\/p>\n

The veteran hooker has admitted to the\u00a0Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>\u00a0that he was \u2018filthy\u2019 when St George backflipped on a one-year contract extension following the sacking of Shane Flanagan, with that decision prompting the former New South Wales representative to look further afield and sign a two-year deal at Wheldon Road<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecruitment made it clear that they\u2019re on the lookout for a couple of younger hookers,\u201d Cook revealed, prompting him to look elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext thing you know, Ryan Carr reached out. I just saw it as a really good opportunity to change it up, take the family over there and go on a bit of an adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarry\u2019s sold \u2018Cas Vegas\u2019 to me. The best thing is that I\u2019ve made a decision now, and I get to really enjoy this last year with the Dragons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenge Cup reaction, incoming head coach and major signing \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers signing admits hurt over NRL exit<\/p>\n

Cook, who made his 250th NRL appearance when St George took on Penrith on Sunday morning in the final game of the NRL\u2019s Magic Round, went on to admit that he did hold hard feelings over his impending St George exit.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen you feel like you give so much to them, when those sorts of things happen, it can hurt a bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely respected the business side of the thing, but obviously because I was involved in it, emotionally invested in it, there were definitely a tough couple of weeks where I was filthy at the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, now that a decision has been made, the 34-year-old is keen for his move to Castleford, where he will be joined by St George teammate Mat Feagai, the Tigers\u2019 latest signing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously wanted to stay \u2013 you\u2019d love to stay here. But the decision\u2019s been made now and I\u2019m actually really excited about it. I\u2019m happy that the future\u2019s been sorted and I can really rip in and do whatever I can to make sure this club finishes off the season well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers have started their recruitment for 2027 early with two NRL players headlining the deals and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-591359","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\/591359","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=591359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}