Paul McGregor believes the signings of experienced players Ben Hunt and James Graham will prevent St George Illawarra from wasting another strong start to a season.
The Dragons are top of the NRL table after four rounds having won their opening four matches for the first time in the joint venture club’s history.
They host traditional rivals South Sydney at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah on Friday night buoyed by their perfect start to the campaign led by their two new stars.
Hunt has provided not just the organisation of the team but control of matches that has alluded St George Illawarra for a number of years. While Graham has led by example, defending and running strongly through the middle.
Some Dragons fans remain pessimistic given St George Illawarra’s failure to turn impressive starts into success in recent years. They led the competition after 12 rounds in 2015 before losing seven straight games to be bundled out in the first week of the finals.
They endured a poor season in 2016 but bounced back last season only to become just the third team since the top-eight system was introduced to miss the finals after leading at the end of the seventh round.
But McGregor said their added experience had helped ensure lessons had been learned.
“I think it’s a different group. The balance of our squad is much improved. We certainly learned a lot as a group and as coaching staff. I’m the first to say I’m not the most experienced coach out there, I’m into my fourth year now,” he said.
“The people we’ve brought in, a halfback, an experienced front-rower. Our kids are in their second and third years after their debuts. They’ve had a couple of tough pre-seasons. So the depth of our squad is deeper. We just need to not get too high after wins and not too low after losses because that’s just part of the game.
“I suppose we didn’t have execution at times [last season]. We lost Gareth [Widdop] at an important time last year for a month. And I know if you watch Gareth play the No.7 that has come in has really freed [him] and made us a threat on both sides of the park. [He has] certainly given the side a better balance with his kicking game. [And] an experienced player like James knowing what all the effort areas of the game and how good he is at them.
“I feel like I’m a lot more comfortable in the box the way the guys are game managing around the important times. We looked at last year and the majority of 2017 we were second best in the competition at half-time but we didn’t make the finals.”
