{"id":405741,"date":"2024-06-24T04:24:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T04:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=405741"},"modified":"2024-06-24T05:05:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T05:05:57","slug":"dragons-skipper-weighs-in-on-professional-cook-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=405741","title":{"rendered":"Dragons skipper weighs in on 'professional' Cook move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragons<\/a> captain B\ufeffen Hunt<\/a> has endorsed the signing of star hooker Damien Cook<\/a>, admitting there are "good things ahead" for the club after a rough few seasons.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old is in the midst of another State of Origin<\/a> campaign with the Maroons, but the question marks over his future in clubland have continued to circle.<\/p>\n

Hunt is off-contract at the end of 2025, but according to multiple reports, the halfback is expected to sign an extension that would see him remain in the Red V until he retires.<\/p>\n

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St George Illawarra recently re-signed the likes of Jaydn Su'A and Tyrell Sloan, giving a further boost to the rebuild under head coach Shane Flanagan<\/a>. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Speaking to media during Queensland camp on Monday, the veteran said he will sit down for a conversation with Flanagan after the Origin period finishes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\ufeff"At this stage, there's nothing really in place – I've spoken to Flanno and we're just waiting to get through Origin and sit down to have a chat about it," Hunt said.<\/p>\n

"We've got some great signings and I think we've extended some guys that needed to hang around like Jaydn. It's really exciting times \u2026 if we can sit down after Origin and have a conversation, we will work it out.\u00a0All things are going well."<\/p>\n

Hunt has been the marquee man at the Saints for more than half a decade, but has failed to lead them to a top-eight finish since 2018 and requested a release last year.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

However, the recent turnaround under Flanagan \ufeffon and off the field has tempted Hunt to remain in Wollongong long-term and the impending arrival of Cook will only bolster the side's hopes of competing for an NRL premiership.<\/p>\n

"I'm really excited that Jaydn has extended with the club and we've got Cookie coming on board \u2026 there's good things ahead," he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It's huge – not just as a player, but also as a leader. He's another old head, he's played the game at the top level and played Origin. He knows what it takes to be a professional.<\/p>\n

"The more guys like that you can bring into the club the better and I'm just really excited that we were able to lure a guy of his calibre to the club."<\/p>\n

Along with the addition of Cook for 2025 and beyond, Flanagan has also managed to land the likes of Luciano Leilua and Hame Sele to add size in the middle of the field.<\/p>\n

The club has also locked in the likes of Loko Jnr Pasifiki Tonga and Jacob Halangahu<\/a> long-term, with both players starring during the U19s State of Origin last week. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dragons captain B\ufeffen Hunt has endorsed the signing of star hooker Damien Cook, admitting there are "good things ahead" for the club after a rough […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":405744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405741"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405747,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405741\/revisions\/405747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/405744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}