INS
Gil Dudson (Salford)
David Fifita (Rumoured) - no update on story since September
Mike McMeeken (Castleford Tigers)
OUTS
David Mead (No club yet)
Mika Simon (Carcassonne)
Sam Moa (Lezignan)
Eamon O'Carroll (Coach, Newcastle Thunder)
Lucas Albert (Lezignan)
Remi Casty (Retired)
Lewis Tierney (Leigh)
RETAINED
Israel Folau
Paul Seguier
Arthur Romano
Matt Whitley
Lambert Belmas
Arthur Morgue
We have been following the coaching career of ex-Dragon Olivia Elima working with limited resources at Palau Broncos.
This season however the budget has increased along with expectations.
The St Esteve defeat was one too many for the board of Palau who have replaced Elima with ex-St Esteve coach Benoit Albert replacing him soon after the match.
It could have been so different with his side heading into the break ahead and with one sin binned Catalan and one red carded after a bad looking challenge saw a massive bout of scrappy dappy do.
The shorthanded home side turned on the style second half and it took a late Broncos try to make the scoreline look as close as it does.
Its a shame as we felt a job well done with Broncos might have seen Elima in the frame for a role at Stade Gilbert Brutus down the track.
That looks a lot less likely now.
St Estève XIII Catalan (6) 30
T : Mathieu Laguerre 2, César Rougé, Alan Baby, Lambert Belmas
G : Robin Brochon 2, Alan Baby 3
Palau (10) 22
T : Amine Miloudi, Hadrien Domergue, Hakim Miloudi
G : Bruno Castany 5
Another of our Challenge Cup winning heroes has left the club with Lewis Tierney leaving to join newly promoted Leigh.
We would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him well.
...Benjamin Garcia.
Well done to Ben on winning the vote on our forum in association with RLFans.com
After painting a horror story of the cost of travelling to the UK weekly with no income and an initial surge of player releases, Bernard Guasch is happier about the future for the club.
Treize Mondial and the local paper L'Independant report that financial aid and prize money from the play off run has provided a welcome boost to finances.
We are certainly portraying a lot more of a positive outlook after some commentary that we would be having a proper scale back for 2021 and beyond.
https://treizemondial.fr/les-dragons-catalans-renflouent-les-caisses-avant-noel/
You can read the full piece above (in French).
There are further stories that we are now looking to raid the NRL for 2 players but with a March 2021 opening to the campaign there is no hurry to fill the spots.
Arthur Morgue was a real positive of the Dragons 2020 campaign and despite lots of interest from other Super League clubs he has put pen to paper on a new deal.
If he wins as many trophies for the club as our last back from Avignon I will be happy.
Well done Arthur and good luck.
http://www.catalansdragons.com/en/articles-9/220-8254-arthur-mourgue-signs-contract-extension/
Welshman Gil Dudson has signed a 2 year contract with the Dragons arriving from Salford.
We would like to welcome him and wish him well.
We would like to wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Oh and don't forget the big derby game with Palau on the clubs Youtube this weekend...
Treize Mondial have secured the picture that all of us wanted from this weekends Elite 1 action.
Lezignan met Carcassonne and we saw Sam Moa tackle Mike Simon. Both barely out of the Catalans Dragons set up but keen to put a marker down in the French league.
Brilliant picture!
You can read the article about the match on Treize Mondial here.
Lezignan 20-16 Carcassonne was the final score.
Catalans have had a busy couple of days with lots going on at the club.
First off, as we have known for months now, Mike McMeeken has signed for us from Castleford Tigers. You can read the confirmaiton of that deal by clicking here.
We definitely welcome the addition of a forward, we just hoped he would be in addition to the likes of Remy Casty and Jason Baitieri as opposed to instead of.
Regardless he is a good addition.
Despite some of the recent frustration locally at the number of English players Steve McNamara has been signing, the news that Matt Whitley has extended his deal in Perpignan will be positive news.
He has probably, along with Sam Tomkins, been the best English signing we've had since Elliot Whitehead, which is some accoldade. Read about his new deal here.
Meanwhile. If you were planning to settle down and watch live coverage of our weekend Elite 1 match with Albi tomorrow, don't bother as its off.
Covid is digging its claws in our enjoyment of rugby league one more time in 2020.
Let's hope for better in 2021.
The reserves side finally got going in the domestic league putting a half century on St Gaudens over the weekend.
St Estève XIII Catalan (28) 50
T : Le Cam, Laguerre 2, Rougé 3, Flovie, Franco, Ribas
G : Brochon 7
St Gaudens (4) 14
T : Delage, Wall 2
G : Dumas
Nice to see our favourite player Romain Franco back on the try trail !!! :)
The match was live on the internet and you can watch the highlights here.
Our friends at Catalan Media have penned an excellent review of the 2020 campaign for the Catalans Dragons and we would advise all of our readers to click this link and enjoy the article as we did.
Despite some high profile moments which didn't go down too well this side of Le Manche, there is plenty to be proud of from our clubs efforts this season.
