NRL player Troy Dargan has died in a motorcycle accident while holidaying in the Cook Islands.
Key points:
- Dargan’s management team has confirmed he died overnight aged 26
- The NRL half played two first grade games for South Sydney
- He had been signed by the Canberra Raiders on a two-year contract for the upcoming NRL season
Dargan played two NRL games, both for South Sydney in 2020, and had joined Canberra on a two-year contract for the upcoming season.
The playmaker’s management Aria Sports Group confirmed the news via social media on Christmas Day.
Dargan, who was nicknamed TJ, was 26.
“On behalf of the Dargan family, it is with a heavy heart that we share the news of TJ’s tragic passing overnight,” a statement from Aria Sports Group read.
“He and his family were holidaying in the [Cook Islands] where TJ was involved in a motorcycle accident.
“TJ will [be] greatly missed and our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”
Along with representing the Australian schoolboys and NSW under-20s, Dargan was named a halfback in the 2016 Holden Cup Team of the Year, while contracted at Parramatta.
He later joined Brisbane, playing for reserve grade affiliates Norths between 2018 and 2019, before reuniting with former Broncos coach Wayne Bennett at the Rabbitohs.
Dargan made his first-grade debut against the Sydney Roosters in the Rabbitohs’ first game after the NRL returned from a COVID-enforced hiatus in May 2020.
He partnered club legend Adam Reynolds in the halves twice while Cody Walker was suspended, but made way once the regular five-eighth returned in round five that season.
Dargan had signed with the Raiders this season after playing for Manly’s NSW Cup affiliate Blacktown Workers six times in the 2023 season.
He twice represented the Cook Islands at an international level and scored two tries in a 38-16 defeat of the United States in late 2019.
AAP/ABC