St George junior Jason Dimetriou has returned to the Dragons.
Dimetriou said it was good to be back in Dragons territory and is excited about working as an assistant coach with the St George Illawarra Dragons and as head coach of the Illawarra Cutters NSW Cup team.
The 40-year-old’s rugby league travels have taken him from Australia to England and back; to North Queensland and now Sydney and Wollongong where the Dragons train the majority of the time.
He grew up in Kingsgrove, went to Kingsgrove High School and played for Hurstville United in the St George junior league.
Some training sessions are also held at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah and Dimetriou returned to the spiritual home for a Dragons training session on Thursday to help coach Paul McGregor and coaching staff put the squad through a training routine.
‘‘The last time I was at Kogarah was for a local league grand final in 1999,’’ Dimetriou said.
‘‘I am living at Caringbah since moving to the Dragons.’’
His rugby league playing days included games for St George Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball Cup teams before he played with the Newtown Jets.
He spilled some blood, sweat and tears on the ground when playing in the Big Red V in Saints junior representative teams in his youth.
The former utility player had 10 seasons in the British Super League; 54 games for Widnes Vikings (2001-2003) and 186 games for Wakefield Wildcats (2004-2010), a club he also captained for five seasons.
After hanging up the boots, Dimetriou began coaching in England with Keighley Cougars in 2011-12 and upon his return to Australia then headed to Queensland to coach the Northern Pride in the Queensland Cup, in the 2013-14 seasons.
Northern Pride won the 2014 Queensland Cup grand final over Easts Tigers and then defeated Penrith in the inaugural State Cup championship at ANZ Stadium.
Last season he was an assistant coach to North Queensland Cowboys head coach Paul Green.
The Cowboys won their first NRL title, a thrilling 17-16 grand final win over the Brisbane Broncos, in golden point extra-time.
‘‘I mainly looked after the attacking side of things at the Cowboys,’’ Dimetriou said.
‘‘I will be looking after the attacking side of things with the Dragons.
‘‘There is a lot of talent here and players with a lot of points in them in attack.’’
Dimetriou said he enjoyed his stint with the Cowboys and learned a lot at the premiership-winning club.
But he said a conversation with Dragons head coach Paul McGregor before Christmas was the spark for him to decide to join the Big Red V.
Assistant coach Ian Millward’s move to become director of pathways at the Dragons opened the door for Dimetriou’s recruitment.
‘‘After speaking with Paul McGregor I knew he was a man I wanted to work alongside,’’ Dimetriou said.
