Super League target inks deal with new club

It’s long been said that Australian stars come to Super League at the end of their career for one final pay-check but a trend in recent years has seen younger players move, develop and then potentially return down under with a particular emphasis on the spine players.

The prime example of this would be Jackson Hastings who linked up with Salford Red Devils in 2018 aged just 22 and took the league by storm.

His performances in 2019 helped take the Red Devils all the way to Old Trafford and earned him the Man of Steel award and a move to Wigan, before his NRL return with Hastings now a key player for Newcastle Knights.

More recent examples who haven’t yet returned to the NRL but are either set to or rumoured to include Jake Clifford, Brodie Croft, Lachlan Lam and Leeds Rhinos pairing of Aiden Sezer and Blake Austin.

One man who did that last year was Jack Cogger with the playmaker featuring for Huddersfield Giants signing ahead of the 2021 season, helping the Giants to the 2022 Challenge Cup Final and then leaving at the end of the season.

Cogger signed with reigning two time consecutive premiers Penrith Panthers and given that the Panthers halves feature Nathan Cleary, considered by many as the best player in the world, Cogger hasn’t featured much even in Cleary’s absence.

As such there become rumours of a Super League return with English clubs clearly aware the 25-year-old was not content with his game time but it seems that Super League clubs have been beaten to the punch.

It’s being reported by the Daily Telegraph that Cogger is set to link up with Hastings at Newcastle having signed a three-year deal starting from 2024.

The Telegraph reports that the Panthers had upped their offer in a bid to retain Cogger, who would be one of the best back-ups in the NRL, but he’s opted to move elsewhere to look for game time.

Newcastle also happens to be the club Cogger came through at and he’s already represented them 20 times before spells with Canterbury and then Huddersfield Giants as well of course.