Dragons show NRLW coach Soward the door, Whitehead hit with lengthy ban (2024)

The Dragons have told NRLW coach and former NSW Origin star Jamie Soward he won’t be retained beyond the 2024 season.

Soward was informed on Monday of the club’s decision by chief executive Ryan Webb, and it is unclear at this stage if he will see out the remainder of the season.

He declined to comment when contacted by this masthead but indicated he is keen to continue coaching next season and wished a Dragons playing group stacked with young talent nothing but the best.

Soward put his hand up to take over as NSW women’s State of Origin coach in June after incumbent Kylie Hilder oversaw a third loss in four years, raising the prospect of a shake-up pending a NSWRL board review.

“I want to interview if there’s a chance,” Soward, who worked as a NSW assistant in 2022, told AAP at the time. “I’d love to coach the Sky Blues.”

Soward, who won a premiership with St George Illawarra in 2010, has coached the Dragons NRLW team since 2021, but the team has struggled since the competition expanded to 10 teams in 2023.

Under Soward’s leadership, the team played in the 2021 grand final, where they lost 4-16 to the Roosters, and reached the semi-finals in 2022 where they lost 30-6 to the Knights.

The Dragons missed the finals series in 2023, when they finished seventh on the ladder after just three wins for the season.

In 2024, the club have posted just two wins so far with three weeks left of the regular season, but they thrashed beat the Eels 42-14 last weekend and stunned two-time premiers Newcastle with a 18-10 victory earlier in the season.

Soward has overseen a significant roster rebuild in recent seasons as the Dragons impressive young talent – including 10 Illawarra Steelers players in this year’s NSW under 19s side – began to emerge.

Whitehead hit with lengthy ban for season-ending tackle on Smith

Canberra’s Elliott Whitehead has been hit with a lengthy ban and up to $5000 in fines for three separate incidents on Sunday, including a hip-drop tackle on Sydney Roosters’ hooker Brandon Smith that is feared to have ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Whitehead, who is off to Super League next year, has been slapped with a minimum three-game suspension for the dangerous contact, along with a minimum $3600 in fines for tripping James Tedesco and contrary conduct on Angus Crichton.

The Raiders veteran was sent to the sin bin on two separate occasions for the incidents involving Smith and Crichton in the Raiders’ 14-12 victory over the Roosters.

The charge means Whitehead will almost certainly miss his final game as a Raider after nine seasons at the club, with the 34-year-old off to England next year, unless he can get the ruling overturned at the NRL judiciary.

Whitehead’s suspension is compounded by a season-ending fractured cheekbone and broken nose for Raiders fullback Jordan Rapana, who suffered the injury during a collision with Tedesco in the early minutes of the match. Rapana is also off to play in England next year.

Whitehead told reporters he tried to apologise for the injury to Smith after the match, but Roosters coach Trent Robinson “had a go at me”.

“I didn’t mean to do [that to] Brandon. I know he’s come up with a bad injury and stuff, and I’m sorry to him for that,” Whitehead said. “I went over to ask about Brandon and Trent Robinson’s had a go at me. I went to apologise, and he’s turned on me, so the way he’s done that I thought [he] was out of order.”

Robinson confirmed he and Whitehead exchanged words after the match, and claimed the hip-drop tackle was common in Whitehead’s game.

“He came up and just wanted to ask how Brandon was, and I just said it was too many times. The hip-drops been pretty common in his game for a long time, and I just said it’s too many times. It’s cost us a player,” Robinson said.

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“That was it. He said it was an accident, and I just said, ‘Look you’ve done it too many times’. That was it.

“He’s done a lot in his career. It’s been pretty common. If you go and have a look – I like Elliott, watched him since he was in Bradford and Catalans – but it’s been pretty common and that was what I said. I know he’s opened it up here [press conference] which is why we’re talking about it, and I wouldn’t usually want to talk to you guys [reporters] about it, but he opened it up, and it’s been really common in his game his whole career.”

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