The Dragons are poised to sign Kodi Nikorima and add the Dolphins veteran to a 2027 playmaking spine potentially made up entirely of recruits as the club ramps up extension talks with rising local juniors Toby and Ryan Couchman.

Retaining the brothers long term is the latest instalment of the Dragons’ “Border Force” retention policy to keep the latest batch of promising local juniors at the club.

Nikorima, meanwhile, has agreed to a two-year Dragons deal. The 32-year-old has been in career-best touch as the Dolphins close in on a maiden finals appearance, but will move on next season given the club is committed to bringing English half George Williams back to the NRL.

Along with star Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater, Warriors half Luke Metcalf and Roosters utility Connor Watson, Nikorima’s arrival offers coach Dean Young several options in his side’s weakest areas.

Hakves Kyle Flanagan and Daniel Atkinson especially have struggled for consistency in the latter’s first season with the club. Skipper Clint Gutherson has had a move to the centres forecast for some time, while Jacob Liddle has shared dummy-half duties with Damien Cook this year.

Despite it being all-but inevitable that St George Illawarra will take the first wooden spoon in the club’s history as a joint-venture this season, the progress of emerging forwards and local juniors Hamish Stewart, Dylan Egan and the Couchman twins has been the biggest positive of 2026.

Young’s drawn-out re-signing as Dragons coach for another two years (with a club option for 2029) was strongly supported by the club’s next generation, and bolsters hopes of keeping the Couchman brothers, revitalised prop Loko Pasifiki-Tonga and back-rower Jacob Halangahu from going to market on November 1.

Friday’s clash against the Dolphins and NSW Origin flyer Jack Bostock presents an all-too familiar sight for Dragons fans and officials – a local product made good in rival colours.

Bostock played in the same Illawarra Steelers SG Ball side as Stewart, Egan and the Couchmans, but was passed over by the Dragons before being signed by Wayne Bennett at the Dolphins.

The Shellharbour native is one of several players across the NRL who have come through St George Illawarra’s pathways, but for one reason or another are lining up elsewhere.

Blues stars Dylan Lucas (Knights), Reece Robson (Roosters) and Bostock headline a list that also includes Jackson Ford (Warriors), Tyran Wishart (Storm) and Jesse Colquhoun (Sharks).

CEO Tim Watsford is painfully aware of the Red V’s recent history in retaining local talent, particularly with the NRL’s expansion plans creating potentially more than 100 top 30 roster spots that need filling in years to come.

“Yes, there’s a lot of work to do and a lot of investment toward building what I would like see become one of the most robust pathways and academy programs in the game,” Watsford told this masthead.

“We’ve got full support from the board to try and ensure that this club produces and keeps players, not doing that has been a knock on us in the past. But we’ve got two, potentially three new teams by [2029] if all goes to plan in New Zealand for a third team to come in with PNG and Perth.

“So ‘Border Force’, stopping other teams fishing in our pond, is a priority. It’s a rich nursery from the south coast, Illawarra and Kogarah area and that’s got to be our identity.

“We’re not going to be able to keep everyone. You look at Penrith, they face that issue but they keep bringing local players through and for our guys, they want to wear the Red V. It’s up to the club to give them every opportunity to do that with the right pathways and the right coaching.”