St George Illawarra believe the change of regime at the NRL club will attract interest from off-contract superstars Benji Marshall, Darren Lockyer and Karmichael Hunt.

The three marquee names come off contract after this season and all have a connection with new Dragons coach Wayne Bennett.

Bennett is the only coach Lockyer and Hunt have played under at Brisbane, while current Wests Tiger Marshall was a key member of the World Cup-winning New Zealand outfit for which Bennett was an assistant.

“They’re all people that we’d like to think would be interested in the Dragons going forward but our main priority is to settle down with what we’ve got and see how that fits,” Dragons chief executive Peter Doust told AAP on Thursday.

“The coach is really working on a plan now, having completed our rosters for 2009, of seeing people play and how they play together so we won’t be rushing into anything at the moment.”

Adding to a potential fit between the trio and the club is the fact the side’s fullback (Hunt’s position) and halves (Marshall and Lockyer’s) are far from settled for 2009.

Ben Hornby, Brett Morris and Darius Boyd appear to be the candidates for the No.1 jersey while Hornby, Mathew Head and Jamie Soward are the most likely candidates for the halves.

Hunt and Marshall have also been linked to possible moves to rugby union.

Doust said Bennett’s first month-and-a-half in charge had created a different environment at the joint venture club.

“You introduce someone of that calibre and you’re looking to instigate change,” Doust said.

“Wayne as a professional has recognised all the good things about St George Illawarra … he’s dealing with a marquee club, an icon of the game, and he understands that there’s a lot of things here that only need to be tapped or twisted a little bit.

“So we’re working together not to overhaul the club in any major way, but to take it to that level that we think we should be at.”

Bennett was in no mood to talk football as the club announced its renovated Sydney home ground would be known this year as WIN Jubilee Oval, where the Dragons will play six home games including a round three grudge match against former captain Trent Barrett’s Cronulla.

Instead, the master coach launched an impassioned plea for more clubs to recognise their suburban heartlands.

“It’s what the fans want,” he said.

“I think the fans are disenfranchised at different times when we continually move our stadiums and don’t cater for them as well as we should.

“Grounds like this just give you atmosphere, it’s automatic. The big grounds, you need the crowds there to do that.

“Last year I turned the TV on, I wasn’t going to watch the Titans playing the Wests Tigers, and I looked at Leichhardt (Oval) and it was packed and the atmosphere was just coming through the television and I sat and watched the whole game.

“I had no intention of doing that and that’s what it does for you, it just gets you involved and that’s what you play for as a club and that’s what your fans want.”

© AAP 2012

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