Centurions capture Hutchison from Dragons
Leigh Centurions have signed half-back Drew Hutchison from St George Illawarra Dragons on a two-year deal until the end of the 2019 season.
The 22-year-old is a former Australian Schoolboy representative and in 2013, he made Dragons debut in their National Youth Competition team and represented New South Wales Under-20s in the following year.
In 2015, Hutchison played for the Dragons’ feeder team, Illawarra Cutters. Hutchison then captained NSW Under-20s again against Queensland as his side won 32-16 in Brisbane.
Hutchison made his NRL debut for St George against Cronulla Sharks in July 2015 and made two further first-grade appearances that year.
The half-back enjoyed a great 2016 season as he notched up the winning one-pointer as Illawarra won the Intrust Super Premiership NSW Grand Final.
And Centurions head coach Neil Jukes is made up to have him at the club.
He said: “Drew is an outstanding signing for Leigh Centurions. He is very highly-rated and an exceedingly talented half-back.
“Throughout his junior career Drew achieved everything he could do, with his club sides, playing for his state side and then being given the accolade of selection for the Junior Kangaroos. As well as that, he showed outstanding leadership qualities for the teams he represented, which was recognised when he was handed captaincy of the New South Wales Under-20s in 2015.
“To achieve those accolades given the hugely talented pool of players in Australia shows how highly-regarded he is and how sought after he was.
“Unfortunately, just as he was breaking into the first-grade side, he got an injury setback in 2017.
“From speaking to Drew, he is very ambitious to achieve many more things in his career. The fact that he has chosen Leigh Centurions, ahead of interest from many other clubs shows how far we have come as a club in the past few years.
“Drew will be an instrumental figure for Leigh Centurions in 2018 and beyond. He has all the qualities to forge a senior career as outstanding as his junior career.”
