The St George Illawarra Dragons have come one step closer to securing their man, with officially tabling a three-year deal to Scott Drinkwater to make the move to Wollongong.
After the Cowboys allowed Drinkwater to negotiate with rivals last week, the Daily Telegraph is reporting a million dollar per year contract has been offered to Drinkwater, with the Bears, Bulldogs, Sharks and Wests Tigers all also enquiring for his services.
The Dragons are reportedly the only club to lodge an official offer, with the Red V earmarking Drinkwater as the long-term fullback successor to Clint Gutherson.
Although the Drinkwater camp is looking for clarity surrounding the club’s future plans beyond this year, mostly surrounding their forward pack and halves pairing, with his manager Chris Orr revealing Drinkwater would like to see a roadmap before committing to terms.
“The Dragons tabled an offer to us (on Tuesday night) and we will try and organise a meeting next week,” Orr told the Daily Telegraph.
“It’s a really good three-year offer from the Dragons and we are looking at what that looks like for Scott.
“He will look at the offer seriously. We will continue talks next week, my attitude is we talk business from Monday to Wednesday and then after that I let the player focus on his team and the game ahead.
“It’s going to be hard for a player to go to any club if they don’t know the coach, the halves and the forward structure.
“I’d like to think ‘Drinky’ will accept the Dragons deal. But he also has to know who his coach is, who’s the halfback, what’s the playing roster look like.
“These are all considerations for Scott.”
With the Dragons slumping to a zero and six start to the year, these are the factors Drinkwater is questioning before he makes the move down south.
Drinkwater is contracted until the end of 2027, however, the Cowboys have re-signed promising young centre Jaxon Purdue, who can also play fullback, until the end of 2030.
It’s given Drinkwater the opportunity to look what else is out there to secure his future, with it looking like the Dragons being in the lead.
“Scott is contracted to the Cowboys for next season but the club has told us they won’t be keeping ‘Drinky’ for 2028,” Orr added.
“I don’t know why the Cowboys are moving Scott on, especially after the way he played against the Broncos the other night, but perhaps there’s some salary-cap considerations for them.
“The decision now for Scott is does he play out one more year with the Cowboys or does he go somewhere else and secure his future?
“At this stage, we’ve only had the one offer from the Dragons, but there’s interest from several clubs.
“I’ve had about four or five clubs call me and we’ll see if they come forward with more offers.”
Drinkwater is in electric form and has been a significant reason the Cowboys are in the top four to start this season.
With him reaching career-best form this year with his offensive game, it would be an excellent pickup for the Dragons, who have lacked attacking flair at times during this year.
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