Tallon Smith
The Albion Park-Oak Flats Eagles have announced the signing of a second former NRL player for the 2026 season in the space of two weeks after Rhys Kennedy agreed to terms with the club.
The former Bronco and Rabbitoh joins the Eagles from Group 7 rivals Jamberoo less than two weeks after Bulldogs half Drew Hutchison committed to returning to his junior club.
Eagles coach Josh White, himself a former NRL player, said that it has been an exciting off-season for the club, but one that was needed after some key losses.
“It’s been a big couple of weeks, [but] in saying that we’ve lost a few players as well,” he said.
“Bringing the two blokes in, Drew and Rhys, is going to make us a lot stronger with experience, and will probably cover for the blokes we’ve lost.
“We’ve lost three or four first graders and brought two really good ones in so, hopefully they cover all bases for us.”
When asked what drew the Eagles to Kennedy, White said it was the “experience” he showed, something that the coach identified in his performances against Albion Park.
“We played him this year and you could see he was a quality player,” he said.
“We identified him pretty early, and when the opportunity came up, we took it with both hands to see if we could persuade him to come over to Park and help us go to that next level and get into a Grand Final.
“He played at Jamberoo last year, but before that he was in Super League and NRL, so he’s got a lot of experience to help with not only the first grade side but all the younger guys within the club, all the way down to the juniors.”
The recruitment of the two NRL stars balances out the loss of two strong players for the club, in former Cronulla lower grade players Kane Ball and Toataua Porima.
Porima and the former Michael Cronin Medallist Ball will join Young in Group 9 next season, with White sad to see both go but hoping the signings of Kennedy and Hutchison balance the departures out.
“We’ve lost two quality players and we gained two quality players, so we haven’t really lost much there,” he said.
“As I said, a bit more experience coming into the side is going to be fantastic for us going forward, hopefully these blokes will do the job.
“We’re pretty happy, we’ve got a few along the way, so now it’s really time to knuckle down and get ourselves prepared for 2026.”
Finally, when asked if the signings of two ex-NRL players installs Albion Park as one of the premiership favourites next season, White said that it will all mean nothing without hard work.
“It gives us an opportunity, but as I keep saying to all the players, just because we signed two really good experienced players, doesn’t mean they’re going to win the comp for us, we’ve all got to do a job from one to 17 each week,” he said.
“I just hope our blokes don’t just fall into the [trap] of thinking we’ve got Drew and Rhys now, so we should be right.
“Winning a competition [requires] a lot of hard work, so we’ve got a lot of hard work in front of us, and I think we’re up for the challenge this year.”
The new Group 7 season will kick off in April, with Albion Park looking to win its first premiership since 2012.
