The St George Illawarra Dragons have opened contract negotiations with their veteran hooker, Damien Cook, with the club tabling a one-year extension that would likely take the 34-year-old through to rugby league retirement.
Cook is preparing to play his 14th campaign in the NRL, and as he keeps racking up games, questions have begun turning to when he might hang up the boots and walk away from rugby league. He turns 35 later this year – his birthday’s in June – and has already 240 appearances in the top-flight competition since debuting in the Red V way back in ’13.
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Shane Flanagan and the Dragons still think he has plenty to offer, too, both as an option at nine and across the backline in matches, as well as a wiser head in training drills and for squad building as St George Illawarra’s junior group comes through.
There’s also the fact that Jacob Liddle, presumed to be the heir to the starting nine jumper, is coming into the 2026 season recovering from a hamstring injury he picked up early in training. The grade-three tear may mean Liddle misses the start of the season, including the Las Vegas trip, which would mean Cook is called on to continue starting for the time being.
The club is unlikely to offer Cook more than one final year (for 2027), but is very eager to keep him playing.
So too Cook himself, who says he’s still “feeling really good” and wants to play on.
“I’m feeling really good, and I’m loving my time here. I still love coming to training, I still love my footy, and now we’re at the fun part,” Cook told 7News before the NRL preseason’s opening weekend. “I’ve really enjoyed the move down here. It’s freshening me up. I feel like I’m good to keep going. I know I’m having no talks of retirement anytime soon.”
The veteran rake added he’s “definitely confident” he can keep up with the NRL grind all the way through to his 36th birthday. “Definitely confident… You know, ‘26, ‘27, then you just never know how you’re feeling.
“I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself… happy from now on to take it year by year.”
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Cook’s main focus, though, will be on ending the Red V’s finals drought. The club hasn’t played finals in eight years now, and all preseason attention has been on ending that time out in the cold. “We’ve had a really good pre-season, and hopefully we can carry that into Round 1,” Cook said on the start of the 2026 campaign. “I’m confident we will.”
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The Dragons start preseason matches with a hit-out against the Newcastle Knights at Kogarah this Saturday evening. They’ll then play South Sydney on February 14 before wrapping up prep and heading to Vegas.
Once in the U.S., the Dragons will start their NRL regular season against the Canterbury Bulldogs.
