Last season placing: 8th
The 2015 NRL season ended for the St. George-Illawarra Dragons in a nail-biting finals clash with the Canterbury-Bankston Bulldogs. Josh Reynolds’ field goal in golden point time crushed the joint-venture club’s hopes of making their way further into the finals series.
After going down in such circumstances, Paul “Mary” McGregor’s men will have their sights set on avenging their side through a strong season and consequently, a more successful finals campaign.
The Dragons had a solid off-season in recruiting, bouncing back from the loss of second-rower Trent Merrin to the Panthers by signing forwards from across the league and abroad, as opposed to promoting juniors from the NYC. Their forward pack now boasts some serious depth, and despite new-signing Mose Masoe injuring his ACL to miss the season, there is still a strong squad in that field.
An issue prevalent in 2015, and one for the joint-venture club to be wary of this year, is keeping consistent in their performances season-long.
So far in the pre-season, the Dragons have travelled to Auckland for a disappointing Nines campaign that saw two losses, but put on more positive performances since their trip overseas. Last week the Dragons thrashed the Warriors 46-10 in a trial fixture. Just after scoring in the Dragons’ 18-14 Charity shield loss, winger Euan Aitken put on a spectacular performance, bolting past the Warriors defence for two tries. Star fullback Josh Dugan experimented in the centres, but hasn’t yet found his dazzling form in the position.
Key Players:
Gareth Widdop
The English point-scoring machine in Widdop has seen a dramatic improvement in his game since coming to the Dragons in 2014. While keeping in mind an injury forced him to miss matches before finals, scoring 182 points last year made him a priceless asset to the joint-venture club in 2015. This year, with a World All Stars appearance already under his belt, we can expect big things from the five-eighth.
Leeson Ah-Mau
The 26-year old Kiwi prop saw major improvements in his game last season, and is on track to better his game this year. Fresh after re-signing for three years with the joint-venture club, Ah-Mau played every game in last year’s NRL season And after an impressive season he was awarded the 2015 Dragons Player of the Year award.
Likely Round 1 line-up: 1. Kurt Mann, 2. Peter Mata’utia, 3. Josh Dugan, 4. Tim Lafai, 5. Jason Nightingale, 6. Gareth Widdop (co-captain), 7. Benji Marshall, 8. Leeson Ah Mau, 9. Mitch Rein, 10. Russell Packer, 11. Tyson Frizell (doubtful), 12. Joel Thompson, 13. Mike Cooper. Interchange: 14. Ben Creagh (captain), 15. Dunamis Lui, 16. Will Matthews, 17. Jack de Belin.
Story of 2016: Kiwi forward Russell Packer has been explosive in the pre-season and will be one to watch this year, after he gained approval from the NRL in 2015 to sign for the Dragons, following his off-field troubles.
Predictions
Ladder: To just make the top eight, again
Predicted Top Tryscorer: Peter Mata’utia
Predicted Top Pointscorer: Gareth Widdop
Predicted Player of the Year: Tyson Frizzell
