{"id":799797,"date":"2026-10-12T04:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T04:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799797\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T04:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T04:02:12","slug":"st-helens-next-signing-imminent-as-nrl-boss-issues-transfer-latest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799797\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens&#8217; next signing imminent as NRL boss issues transfer latest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Starling will join <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/club\/st-helens\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St Helens<\/a> ahead of the 2027 campaign, Canberra Raiders head coach Ricky Stuart has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Starling\u2019s move to Super League was first revealed by The i Paper before Code Sports reported that the hooker was set to ink a three-year deal with Saints.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/post\/st-helens-next-nrl-signing-drops-major-social-media-hint-on-future\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Last month<\/a>, the 28-year-old then dropped a big hint of his own on social media, posting an Instagram story with Annie\u2019s Song by John Denver used, a tune synonymous with Saints that is sung by their supporters at every home game.<\/p>\n<p>The move had an unknown stumbling block in the shape of fellow Canberra star Owen Pattie starring for Australia\u2019s Prime Minister\u2019s XIII against their Papua New Guinean counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>But now that international clash has taken place and Pattie has come through it without suffering any injury problems, Starling\u2019s Saints switch has been given the green light.<\/p>\n<p>St Helens\u2019 next NRL signing imminent as Canberra coach delivers transfer latest<\/p>\n<p>Starling made his NRL bow for Newcastle Knights back in 2018 against St George Illawarra Dragons, but all 155 of his first-grade club appearances since have come for the Raiders, who he joined ahead of the 2019 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the Canberra Times, head coach Stuart detailed: \u201cTommy and I had a really mature conversation about exactly where he stood and I totally understand his position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTommy has a career to run as well and he had an opportunity with St Helens and he totally understands where Owen Pattie is at.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Tom confronted me about the opportunity with St Helens, I totally get it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All 17 of Starling\u2019s NRL tries have come for Canberra, with an appearance also put on his CV for Australia\u2019s Prime Minister\u2019s XIII in the autumn of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>He featured 23 times for the Raiders this term as they finished 11th on the NRL ladder, with\u00a0boss Stuart adding: \u201cHe is still young enough to be playing for a number of years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s got a good opportunity with Super League instead of sitting back here behind Owen (Pattie).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can keep him for depth, but it\u2019s the wrong thing to do by the individual.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s done a lot for the club and it\u2019s our time now to give Tommy that opportunity to keep his career alive and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Starling will join St Helens ahead of the 2027 campaign, Canberra Raiders head coach Ricky Stuart has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799797","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\/799797","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=799797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}