The St George Illawarra Dragons have handed out an upgrade and contract extension to debutant centre and second-rower Nick Tsougranis.
The youngster, a former Australian Schoolboy, made his debut for the Dragons against the Cronulla Sharks in Round 15, and could feature again in the coming weekas with the Dragons suffering a crippling list of injuries during their most recent game against the Parramatta Eels.
On a development deal this year, Tsougranis was yet to sign on with the Red V into 2026, but the club have now confirmed he has been promoted to the Top 30 for the remainder of 2025, and extended out to 2027.
Able to play at centre or in the second-row, Tsougranis is highly rated by Dragons officials, having progressed through the junior pathways of the club.
โNick is an exciting young prospect as well as an outstanding young man and a local junior who came through our St George pathways,โ coach Shane Flanagan said.
โHe earned his NRL debut recently and we all saw in that game how well he held himself in defence in a position he had only been playing for a short period.
โWe're excited to see how he develops and really pleased to ensure he will remain at the club for at least another two seasons.โ
He made his Jersey Flegg debut in 2022, and NSW Cup debut in 2023 before playing in the under-19 New South Wales State of Origin side.
He now has a combined 22 reserve grade appearances, including 13 this year where he has scored five tries and added 117 metres per game, starting in all bar one contest as part of a side sitting near the top of the table.
Under NRL rules, clubs need to have 30 players registered by June 30, but do not have to replace any players who leave after the start of the season.
The Dragons have lost Tom Eisenhuth (retired), Francis Molo (Dolphins) and Mikaele Ravalawa (Rabbitohs) since the start of the campaign, meaning they only needed 27 registered contracts. Finau Latu also left for the Bulldogs, but was on a development deal.
As it stood, they had 26 players as part of their Top 30, meaning they had to lock in an extra promotion before the June 30 deadline, which they have now done with the addition of Tsougranis.
“, they have exactly 26 players as part of their Top 30, and so didn’t need to upgrade Tsougranis,”
I don’t understand that. If each club needs to have 30 players registered by June 30, then surely they need to upgrade four development players or buy some fresh faces.
Hi mate, as per the article, any players who are let go after the year don’t need to be replaced by June 30…
However, I have now made a slight correction. Given Latu was development, he was never counted as part of the Top 30, so the Dragons did actually have to upgrade 1 to get to 27, with the other three being Eisenhuth, Molo & Ravalawa.