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24 - 30 JULY 2026 Kiama Minnamurra Kiama Downs Jamberoo Gerringong Gerroa
From L-R. Ashton Ward. (Photo: rabbitohs.com.au) Hamish Stewart (Photo: Game Face Photography) Hayden Buchanan (Photo: St George Illawarra Dragons) Dylan Egan (Photo: Game Face Photography)
A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN
The town that makes NRL stars Maria Lewis
A
nyone who loves rugby league knows that it’s a tough game. In fact, it’s one of Australia’s toughest and almost a statistical anomaly that you could make it to the elite level of playing in the National Rugby League (NRL). From a talent pool of more than 200,000 players across Australia, New Zealand,
and the Pacific, the odds of “making it” are less than 0.01 per cent. Yet for some mysterious reason, those stats don’t apply to Gerringong. In fact, there are currently and historically - more players in the NRL that have come from a town of little more than four thousand people than any other. “I wouldn’t even know what to put it down to,” said Dylan
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Egan, one of the local lads defying the odds. “I used to hear all the stats growing up, they would tell you ‘you know, only one in whatever number will get to play NRL professionally’. “Only so many people can make it over so many games, so for a small town like Gerringong to have so many players currently playing and at such a successful rate, it’s pretty surreal.”
Having grown up in Gerringong, the 21-year-old forward currently plays for the St George Illawarra Dragons and is one of several locals spread out across various teams that are competing on the national and international stage. In fact, Egan carpools to work with a handful of them: lock Hamish Stewart and centre Hayden Buchanan sharing his Kia Stonic as they
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fang it up the highway from Gerringong to Dragons HQ at The Bruce Gordon Centre. “Hamish is blowing up at the moment because he’s sick of getting in it,” Egan laughs, adding that he had two dud cars and “not much money” before landing on the Kia. “It’s too small for him in the back, apparently.” On University Of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, Dragons colours
are everywhere: from the illuminated insignia that takes up an entire wall to a community classroom with red cushions. In fact, seemingly everyone who works here is decked out in red and white, a choice that’s either compulsory or subliminal … who can say. Continued on page 2
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