Damien Cook’s 250th NRL game ended in frustration on May 17, 2026, after a first-half try chance against Penrith was sent to the bunker and ruled out. Cook put through a chip kick for himself, chased hard and watched Brian To’o turn and grab the ball before To’o kicked it from Cook’s grasp to score in a play that referee Jarrod Cole took upstairs. The bunker ruled To’o had possession, denied Cook the try and penalised the Dragons.
Had the try stood, St George Illawarra would have trailed 12-6 instead of heading into a match they eventually lost 28-6. The defeat was their 10th from as many games, another hard stop in a season that has yet to produce a win. Dean Young said it would have been nice to go in 12-6 at half-time against the best team in the comp, and asked whether the play had gone up as a try, saying the bunker needed evidence to say it was not one. He also said earlier calls this season may have gone the Dragons’ way and made a difference, though he added: “We’re not walking away from the responsibility that we’re sitting where we are sitting. That’s on us. But we’re not getting the 50/50s at the moment.”
Cook was equally blunt. “I’m a bit biased but I thought it was a try,” he said, adding that to go into half-time 12-6 against the best team in the competition, he felt the Dragons deserved that. The try debate framed only part of a night that also featured Christian Tuipulotu being penalised for a double movement after what should have been the first try of the evening, while Dylan Edwards produced several try-saving tackles for Penrith. Tom Jenkins added a first-half double and lifted his career tally to 18 tries.
For St George Illawarra, the result left a simple picture: no wins in 10 games, and another game in which moments around the tryline turned sharply against them. For Penrith, it was a routine extension of a season built on pressure defense and sharp finishing. Jenkins now has 18 tries, and with 13 games left he would need 20 more to match Dave Brown’s 1938 mark of 38 tries in a season. That chase remains a long way off, but it is the kind of number that gives Penrith Panthers winger news its own angle even in a match dominated by the Dragons’ latest setback.
