St George Illawarra could have as many nine stars unavailable if Dragons players are rewarded for their blistering start to the season with representative selection.
St George Illawarra maintained their perfect start to the season with a 40-20 win over fierce local rivals Cronulla in their derby clash on Friday night.
The Dragons are top of the NRL table with six wins from as many starts, leading to a number of their players being spoken about to play representative football.
Queensland will defend their State of Origin title against NSW starting with game one in Melbourne on June 6. They then play in Sydney on June 24 and Brisbane on July 11.
Tyson Frizell and Ben Hunt are likely to be chosen for the Blues and Maroons respectively. But St George Illawarra’s incredible start to the campaign has a number of players including Jack de Belin, Paul Vaughan, Cameron McInnes and Euan Aitken being mooted to be part of new NSW coach Brad Fittler’s fresh start at the helm.
Dragons trio Gareth Widdop, James Graham and Jason Nightingale all also in the mix to play for England and New Zealand in their historic Test match in Denver on June 23.
But with around six weeks to go before the teams for Origin I are chosen, McGregor said he is happy for his players to be rewarded as long as their focus remains on the red V.
“I think for anyone to be successful in anything you need a purpose. And if you’ve got a purpose then you’ve got to have a passion for that purpose. Then you’ve got to be disciplined around that passion that you show. And I think the guys have got that,” he said.
“So if my players are successful because of the passion they’ve shown and the purpose they’ve got you’ve got to reward it.
“At the moment I’ve told the guys it’s about our team. It’s got to be we before me.
So if my players are successful because of the passion they’ve shown and the purpose they’ve got you’ve got to reward it.
- Dragons coach Paul McGregor
“If they’re playing well in four or five weeks time they’ll get the rewards. But if their team and their form drops off, before they’re picked in Origin they’ve got to play consistently for a long period of time.
“And then they’ve got to replace current Australian players in their position.
“So to do that it’s about playing well for a long period of time, not just six weeks of the competition.
“At the moment they’re doing that.