{"id":782298,"date":"2026-09-25T15:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782298\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T15:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T15:38:12","slug":"st-helens-set-for-quota-headache-as-nrl-hooker-reportedly-inks-three-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782298\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens set for quota headache as NRL hooker reportedly inks three-year deal"},"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

St Helens have confirmed Sean O\u2019Sullivan as their third signing for 2027 but incoming head coach Kevin Walters has reportedly landed his another NRL recruit, with a second spine player targeted as their squad overhaul continues.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement of Christian Tuipulotu from the St George Illawarra Dragons and Friday morning\u2019s confirmed signing of Sean O\u2019Sullivan<\/a>, Walters will again look to the NRL for fresh recruits, and he has opted for a Canberra Raiders man as his next addition.<\/p>\n

Per The Daily Telegraph, hooker Tom Starling is said to have signed a three-year deal at the club, despite having another season on his deal at the Raiders.<\/p>\n

The 156-game NRL player is still only 28 and made his top-flight debut in 2018 with the Newcastle Knights. He moved to the Green Machine the following season and has been a regular in their squad for the past six seasons.<\/p>\n

Should he sign, the 28-year-old would be St Helens\u2019 fourth official signing after the aforementioned NRL due and Catalans centre Solomona Faataape, who will also be joining the club next year.<\/p>\n

Starling has also dropped a major hint that he will become a Saint, sharing an Instagram story with \u2018Annie\u2019s Song\u2019, a track associated with St Helens, playing in the background.<\/p>\n

Red card stupidity, Willie Peters\u2019 legacy, and Super League Grand Final predictions \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n

Why St Helens\u2019 reported new signing will cause a quota headache<\/p>\n

Starling would be working closely with former Man of Steel Daryl Clark, who turns 34 at the beginning of next season. With the ex-Warrington and Castleford man coming to the end of his career, Starling is a dynamic number nine in his own right, but working with Clark could elevate his game even further.<\/p>\n

However, if Saints are to sign Starling then they will need to lose one of their currently contracted overseas players if they\u2019re to stay within the maximum quota number of ten.<\/p>\n

After announcing O\u2019Sullivan as their latest recruit, he also becomes their tenth non-federation trained quota player, meaning Starling would be an eleventh and thus take the club beyond the max quota.<\/p>\n

Currently contracted and on quota for St Helens are; Curtis Sironen, David Klemmer, Jacob Host, Nene Macdonald and Shane Wright (all 2027), Daniel Suluka-Fifita and Solomona Faataape (both 2028), as well as Christian Tuipulotu and Tristan Sailor (both 2029), with O\u2019Sullivan believed to also be contracted for 2027.<\/p>\n

Given that O\u2019Sullivan, Faataape and Tuipulotu are new recruits, Suluka-Fifta was a mid-season recruit, and Sailor has recently signed a new deal, it\u2019s likely that the quota player who is cut to facilitate Starling\u2019s signing is one of the other five players.<\/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":"St Helens have confirmed Sean O\u2019Sullivan as their third signing for 2027 but incoming head coach Kevin Walters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782298","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\/782298","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=782298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}