Joel Tomkins admits Catalans Dragons still have ‘a couple more’ signings to come as they put their squad together for the 2026 season.
The Dragons played their final home game of the year on Saturday as the French club prepare to bring the curtain down on what has been a miserable campaign in Perpignan. Catalans were soundly beaten 40-4 and that spelt their 17th defeat of the Super League season, with Joel Tomkins winning just two games since taking over the club in May.
He’ll be the man entrusted to take Catalans into a new era in 2026, though, and there will be a huge turnover of personnel, both on and off the field going into next year. The club confirmed on Thursday that 13 players will be leaving the club at the end of the season and that includes Sam Tomkins, Elliott Whitehead and Reimis Smith, who are all retiring.
And, the club have already announced a raft of new recruits, with Toby Sexton, Charlie Staines, Harvey Wilson, Zac Lipowicz, Iszac Fa’asuamaleaui, Solomona Faataape and Josh Allen all joining.
There’s more business to be done, though, Tomkins admits, while he has also teased that his 2026 coaching staff will be announced by the club next week.
Catalans Dragons boss gives update after Wigan Warriors loss
“I feel pretty proud of them to be honest,” Tomkins said after Catalans Dragons’ loss to Wigan Warriors. “We had loads of excuses that we could have used this week, we lost our six, seven and 13 in Thursday’s training session and we’ve got over half the salary cap sat on the sidelines playing against the best team in the league, up there with Hull KR.
“In terms of effort, attitude and intent, I thought we turned up, especially in that first half. A couple of things didn’t go our way, two blatant knock ons in the first half got missed and we were on the back foot.
“My overall emotion after that performance is I’m pretty proud of the boys, obviously I’m disappointed with some of the tries we conceded but that’s just the quality that we’ve got out there at the minute and next year, some of the boys we’re bringing in and the coaching staff we’re bringing in, we want to see a big change.”
On those changes, he added: “We’ve probably got a couple more to get and also a couple of coaching staff which will be announced in the next week, probably. We’ve got them over the line now. It’s an exciting time for me as a coach and for us as a group, the staff coming in and the players we’ve got coming in, it’s an exciting time.
“It’s been a really disappointing season this year for a number of reasons but the silver lining is we get to start again next season and see what we can do with a new group of people at the club.”
