St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor predicts Josh Dugan will become a contender for the club captaincy if he continues his remarkable transformation from bad boy to "model citizen".
Dugan is shaping as the X-factor for NSW after filling the fullback void left by the departure of Dally M and Brad Fittler medallist Jarryd Hayne.
It is a mark of how drastically Dugan has turned around his life that, after almost being expelled from the game altogether, he is viewed as a potential future skipper of the Red V. After being sacked by Canberra following numerous off-field incidents – including the infamous Bacardi Breezer selfie with then teammate Blake Ferguson – Dugan was thrown a lifeline by the Dragons.
And not only has the 25-year-old remained scandal-free, he has enrolled in social work courses and emerged as a leader on and off the field.
The Dragons are keen to retain Ben Creagh beyond this year and McGregor has made it clear the off-contract forward will be the captain for as long as he is with the club. However, McGregor believes Dugan's new-found maturity will ensure he is among the contenders to skipper the side in the future.
"Without any shadow of a doubt, he's certainly working towards that," McGregor said.
"To see the way he's playing, he's doing a lot of unselfish acts. The way he's preparing himself for games, he's showing that.
"I think leadership is a word defined in many different ways: some are with actions, some are with words, and some are a bit of both.
"I think leadership is about perfecting your preparation going into a game and then going out and producing a performance under some sort of pressure.
"He's certainly doing that. If you prepare the best you can, the outcome you get is going to be OK. I think that's a leader.
"Will he be a leader in the future? He's showing really good signs at the moment, but leaders aren't made overnight. [They're] made over time.
"That's the right word – contender – he is a contender one day for the captaincy along with a few others. He's got to stay at it for longer and do things over time. At the moment he's working hard at parts of his life and game, and heading towards the right avenue.
"When the time and situation arises, if he keeps going with his progression, there's no reason why he can't, that's for sure."
Dugan will mark up on either Billy Slater or, if the Storm star succumbs to a shoulder problem, Greg Inglis in his sixth appearance for the Blues on Wednesday night. He may have had more Origins to his tally had he not skipped a team meeting, resulting in his non-selection for an encounter against the Maroons.
While McGregor has heard similar stories of Dugan's misbehaviour over the years, he hasn't witnessed a single incident himself.
"It's funny, a lot of people talk about Josh and his past, but I just can't look past what he's doing now," McGregor said.
"I've had Josh in Country games before he was a St George Illawarra player and always found him really easy to talk to and very intelligent in a rugby league sense.
"I really think in the past 12 months he's grown as a man. He's becoming that person I would have liked to have been when I was younger, where he is taking personal pride in his performance.
"Certainly he's managing his body a lot better in the way he manages and prepares it. He's enjoying himself, and that's a really important ingredient when you're in rugby league, enjoying your footy and your approach to it. You can see that in how he's playing week to week.
"I haven't had one little bit of talk about trouble with him. It's strange, the only way to say it is he's a model citizen.
"I suppose he got stepped on and was lying down for a while and he doesn't want to be stepped on again.
"That time he had to work and everything was taken away from him for a short time, it probably hurt him.
"It drove home how hard life can be if you don't have rugby league. If you get that taste, it becomes more important to you for the rest of your life.
"You're only in it for a short time and if you make the most of it you can set yourself up for life.
"Josh has now come to realise that."
Would Josh Dugan make a good Dragons captain?
