Josh Dugan

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Josh Dugan
Personal information
Full nameJosh Dugan
Born (1990-05-11) 11 May 1990 (age 33)
Garran, ACT, Australia
Height189 cm (6 ft 2+12 in)
Weight102 kg (16 st 1 lb)
Playing information
PositionCentre, Fullback, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2009–13 Canberra Raiders 70 27 7 1 123
2013–17 St George Illawarra 84 28 17 0 146
2018–21
Cronulla Sharks
61 24 0 0 96
Total 215 79 24 1 365
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2009–16 Prime Minister's XIII 2 2 0 0 8
2010–11 NSW Country Origin 2 1 0 0 4
2011–12 NRL All Stars 2 2 0 0 8
2011–17 New South Wales 12 3 0 0 12
2015–17 Australia 12 7 0 0 28
Source: [1]
As of 26 May 2021

Joshua Dugan (born 10 May 1990) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a fullback and centre for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL and Australia at international level.

He previously played for the

St George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League, and has played at representative level for the Prime Minister's XIII, Country Origin, NRL All Stars and New South Wales in the State of Origin series
.

Early years

Dugan was born in Garran, Australian Capital Territory.

He played his junior rugby league for the Valley Dragons and South Tuggeranong Knights before being signed by the

NYC Grand Final win over the Brisbane Broncos
, scoring a try and kicking 4 goals.

Playing career

2009

In Round 3 of the

Dally M Rookie of the Year Award in what was an impressive debut season. At the conclusion of the season, Dugan was named the Raiders' Rookie of the Year and was the joint winner of the Mal Meninga Medal for the Raiders Player of the Year Award along with Josh Miller.[6] Dugan finished his debut year in the NRL with him playing in 16 matches, scoring 1 try and kicking 5 goals. In September, he played for the Prime Minister's XIII team against Papua New Guinea.[7]

2010

In May 2010, Dugan was selected for the Country Origin team to play in the annual City vs Country Origin match. He scored a try on debut and was named the Man of the Match.[8] On 7 June, Dugan was named in the 21-man squad for the New South Wales team for Game 3 of the 2010 State of Origin series.[9] However, he was not selected to play in the match after Parramatta's Jarryd Hayne was cleared over a separate off-field incident. On 13 July, Dugan re-signed with the Raiders on a 2-year contract, ending speculation he was headed to the Sydney Roosters.[10] In Round 19 against the Newcastle Knights, Dugan scored a hat trick in the Raiders 52–18 win at Canberra Stadium.[11] Dugan scored 13 tries from 23 matches in 2010.

2011

On 12 February, Dugan was selected for the

Suncorp Stadium.[14] He finished the season
having played in 13 matches and scoring 6 tries.

Dugan playing for the Raiders against the Sharks in 2012

2012

In February, Dugan was again selected for the NRL All Stars, scoring a try in the 28–36 loss to the Indigenous All Stars.[15]

Dugan kicking for goal for Canberra in 2012

He scored 6 tries from 17 games in 2012.

2013

Dugan had his Raiders contract terminated on 14 March following a string of off-field incidents.[16] In April, he was set to sign a $2m, three-year deal with the

WIN Stadium.[20] Dugan was selected to play for New South Wales in Game II and Game lll of the 2013 State of Origin series. On 2 August, Dugan extended his contract with the Dragons for another 4 years, that will keep him with the club till the end of the 2017 season.[21]
Dugan finished the year with him playing in 10 matches, scoring 6 tries and kicking 11 goals.

2014

On 14 February 2014, Dugan was selected in the Dragons inaugural

2014 Auckland Nines squad.[22] He made a mid-season move to the centres, scoring a hat trick against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the round 13 30–0 win at WIN Stadium.[23] Subsequently, Dugan was chosen to play at Centre for Game 2 of the 2014 State of Origin series alongside Will Hopoate. Dugan had a solid match in the Blues 6–4 win resulting in the Blues breaking their 8-year losing streak to Queensland.[24] In Game 3 of the series, Dugan scored his first try in origin level in the 32–8 loss at Suncorp Stadium.[25] In Round 23 against his former club, the Canberra Raiders, Dugan scored a try in the Dragons 34–16 win, the Dragons first win in Canberra since Round 14 in the 2000 NRL season.[26] In the Dragons last match of the season against the Newcastle Knights, Dugan was sinned binned for 10 minutes after he got into a physical altercation with Knights halfback Tyrone Roberts.[27] He finished off the season with him playing in 18 matches and scoring 10 tries. At the end of the year, he was selected for the Australia Kangaroos Four Nations train on squad, but failed to play a game due to offseason surgery.[28]

2015

On 21 January 2015, Dugan was named in the Dragons

Brad Fittler Medal for best performing New South Wales player in the 2015 State of Origin series. He was also nominated for Best Representative Player of 2015, despite losing both the State of Origin series and the ANZAC Test. Struggling with a persistent neck injury, Dugan required off-season surgery to eliminate the possibility of any long-term problems. The surgery was a success. Dugan finished his impressive 2015 NRL season
with him playing in 22 matches, scoring 7 tries and kicking 4 goals for the Dragons.

2016

On 29 January, Dugan was named as the captain of the Dragons 2016 Auckland Nines squad.

ANZ Stadium even though Queensland won the series from the first 2 matches.[34][35] Dugan finished the 2016 NRL season with him playing in 17 matches and scoring 2 tries for the Dragons. On 24 September 2016, Dugan for Prime Minister's XIII against Papua New Guinea, playing at centre and scoring in the 58–0 shellacking win in Port Moresby.[36]

Dugan playing for the Kangaroos against England in 2016

On 4 October 2016, Dugan was selected in the Australia 24-man squad for the 2016 Four Nations series.[37] Dugan played in all 4 matches of tournament and scored 4 tries, 2 of those scored in the Four Nations Final against New Zealand in the 34–8 victory at Anfield.[38]

2017

On 5 May 2017, Dugan played for Australia in the

ANZ Stadium where it ended up in tears after they were defeated 26–20 and the Dragons season was ended missing out on a top 8 spot.[48] Dugan finished his last year at the Dragons with him playing in 17 matches, scoring 3 tries and kicking 2 goals in the 2017 NRL season
.

2018

In February, Dugan was allegedly thrown out of an RSL for poor behaviour. According to the RSL President and other patrons, Dugan was allegedly swearing and disturbing other RSL members.[49]

In Round 1 of the

1300SMILES Stadium.[50]

Dugan was not selected for the 2018 State of Origin series by new coach Brad Fittler due to injuries and inconsistent form. Fittler also highlighted that NSW in the past had a selfish culture which needed to be changed, he went on to say "It was a selfish culture, there's no doubt about that, because there was a lot of people making decisions for themselves, There's only really two cultures I think, there's one where people think for themselves and about themselves and there's one where people think about their workmates, their colleagues and their teammates".[51][52]

On 11 September, Dugan was visibly emotional at a press conference where he claimed no matter how hard he has tried to change public perception of himself, his good acts go unnoticed. Dugan went on to say "I have been an easy target since 2013... when I got sacked from Canberra, everyone has had an opinion of me since then and it's never going to change, I raised $15,000 for a young boy recently, visited him in hospital, he passed away, you didn't hear about that".

Dugan ended the 2018 season making 14 appearances for the club and scored 6 tries. Dugan was injured in the week one finals loss to Eastern Suburbs and subsequently missed the rest of Cronulla's finals campaign.[53][54]

In November, it was revealed by The Daily Telegraph that Cronulla had lost their three main sponsors for the 2019 season which equaled $6 million over five years. It was reported that the sponsorship deal fell through due to Dugan and Andrew Fifita appearing on a podcast back in August 2018 when they called Daily Telegraph columnist Phil Rothfield a "Complete Fuckwit" and that he was "old, weathered and baldheaded".[55][56]

2019

Dugan made 23 appearances and scored 11 tries for Cronulla in the 2019 NRL season as the club reached the finals.

Dugan playing for the Newtown Jets in 2021

Dugan played at fullback in Cronulla's elimination final loss against

Manly-Warringah at Brookvale Oval
.

On 25 October, it was reported that Dugan had been embroiled in a nightclub incident during an off-season fishing trip to Airlie Beach in far north Queensland. Dugan was allegedly involved in a fight at the Boom nightclub at Airlie Beach with witnesses saying Dugan and a group of his friends were kicked out of the venue. Dugan also allegedly failed to tell his club Cronulla or the

NRL integrity unit about the incident.[57][58][59]

2020

Dugan played 16 games for Cronulla in the 2020 NRL season as the club finished 8th and qualified for the finals. He played in Cronulla's elimination final loss against Canberra.[60]

2021

On 3 June, Dugan was informed by Cronulla-Sutherland that his services would not be required beyond the 2021 NRL season.[61]

On 29 June, Dugan was placed under investigation by the

NRL had told all 16 teams that players were not to visit the area.[62]
Dugan was later fined $25,000 by the
NRL over the incident.[63]

On 21 August, it was alleged that Dugan had breached the NRL's strict biosecurity protocols regarding COVID-19 for a second time. Dugan was allegedly pulled over by NSW Police in Lithgow, around 150 kilometres from his residence. Dugan was instructed by police to head home immediately but was pulled over 40 minutes later driving back towards Lithgow.[64] On 26 August, Dugan was fined $50,000 by the

NRL for breaching the codes strict biosecurity protocols. Dugan was also ordered to appear at Lithgow local court on 7 October with charges of not complying with NSW health orders.[65] The court dismissed the charge arising from the first stop; he was convicted of the other offence but no penalty was recorded.[66]

On 10 September, Dugan announced his retirement from the NRL after having his contract terminated by Cronulla as a result of repeated breaches of the NRL's COVID-19 policies.[67]

Later years

In 2022, Dugan played for Orange United Warriors. He was sent off in a Woodbridge Cup match for punching an opponent after full time.[68]

In 2023, Dugan played for Ivanhoes Knights in Smithfield, Far North Queensland. He was appointed as head coach for 2024.[69]

References

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External links