Second-year St George Illawarra Dragons star Valentine Holmes has made his goal for 2026 clear: play more football.
*(Photo shows Valentine Holmes at the St George Illawarra Dragons media call. Picture by Adam McLean)*
The centre/wing found himself sidelined for the back half of the 2025 NRL season, and said he was itching to get back on the field with a revitalized energy.
“I’m pretty excited. Obviously it wasn’t the year that I had hoped for or we had planned for as a team, but the best thing about rugby league is that there’s always another year,” Holmes said. “There’s always another week.
“I was injured for the probably half of the year, so to be able to be out on the field running, tackling and doing everything I can out there with the team again, is good.
“I’m pretty much at 98 per cent [healthy]. I feel like I’m 100 per cent, but the physios always pull me back just a little bit, and tell me just don’t get too excited.
“It’s nice to know that they’re taking care of me because I don’t wanna play too early.”
Just two months stand in the Dragons’ way of round one in Las Vegas where they’ll meet crosstown rivals the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The highly anticipated head-to-head will be Holmes’ first regular season outing since round 19 after suffering a shoulder injury that required surgery.
“We’ve got a couple of months until we head over, but that’s just adds to how eager I am to get out there since, I missed the last 10 weeks of the season,” he said.
“It’s never a pleasant thing, being injured and knowing that you should be out there with your teammates helping get wins.
“I just feel like I let them down, let myself down, and just didn’t get a chance to get back out there at the end of the year.
“It was more like, my season was over once I found out I had to get surgery, so it was disappointing at the time.”
Leading up to his injury, Holmes had notched up six tries, nine try assists and 45 goals in 14 showings.
Other duties had called in that period, and while Holmes acknowledged it was an honour to represent Queensland in the State of Origin arena, it too took away from his Dragons gig.
“I just want to be out there week in, week out,” he said. “I’m sick of missing games.
“It’s obviously a privilege … to play Origin, but to miss those games where I think we might have lost one or two is hard. When you go through the trenches in this pre-season time with your teammates and then not be out there with them, especially towards the back end of the year, is tough.
“They signed me here, not as a marquee player like the two captains, but as someone they want in the team every week. As goal kicker as well, it’s another pivotal part of my position in the team.”
*(Photo from the St George Illawarra Dragons match against the Paramatta Eels at WIN Stadium. Photo shows Dragons celebrating a try by Valentine Holmes. Photo: Adam McLean)*
The Dragons sat 11th with a six-and-ten losing record at the time of Holmes’ injury in July.
“Last year we had a lot of new guys come in and a lot of young guys come up, so it was a very fresh mix of experience plus young guys coming through,” Holmes said.
“I thought that was a good stepping stone. We’re working hard now to try and get back to our goals.
“I definitely feel like everyone is mentally prepared and knows what it takes and to play finals or to play week in week out footy first, especially our younger lads, so, yeah, looking forward to that.”
The 30-year-old veteran was confident in the squad’s pre-season performance thus far, though the next two weeks would be a crucial tell.
“We’re working hard now to try and get back to our goals,” he said. “I think at the moment now we’re looking pretty good.
“Everyone’s settled in, everyone’s come back into good shape, but I think the big test will be this next two weeks. Everyone relaxes off, goes away with family, and eats a lot of food. But you’ve got to look after yourself and all that.”
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