Team: St George Illawarra Dragons
Homeground: WIN Stadium, WIN Jubilee Stadium
Coach: Wayne Bennett
Season 2010: First (P24, W17, L7, 219 pts)
2011 squad: Jack Bosden, Darius Boyd, Matt Cooper, Ben Creagh, Adam Cuthbertson, Nick Emmett, Nathan Fien, Mark Gasnier, Bronx Goodwin, David Gower, Jon Green, Michael Greenfield, Ben Hornby, Dan Hunt, Cameron King, Jake Marketo, Trent Merrin, Brett Morris, Jason Nightingale, Daniel Penese, Matt Prior, Mitch Rein, Beau Scott, Jamie Soward, Kyle Stanley, Peni Tagive, Michael Weyman, Dean Young.
Ins: David Gower, Daniel Penese, Adam Cuthbertson
Outs: Jarrod Saffy, Neville Costigan, Beau Henry, Kalifa Fai Fai Loa, Jeremy Smith, Ricky Thorby, Luke Priddis, Michael Lett, Joe Vickery, Junior Paulo.
Season preview: The reigning premiers will head into the new season minus a few Dragons from both ends of the playing spectrum.
Promising Toyota Cup stars Beau Henry and Kalifa Fai Fai Loa have both moved on, with Henry trying his luck at the Knights, and the impossibly speedy Fai Fai Loa now settled in Townsville. And Stalwarts Jeremy Smith and Neville Costigan have both taken their years of experience out of the St George Illawarra second row.
Pre-season personnel changes won’t be enough to rattle the Dragons. They’ll miss the grit and level heads of Costigan, Smith and Priddis, but they retain Beau Scott’s aggression and Ben Creagh’s talent for picking a good line, and if anyone can settle a crop of new players, it’s supercoach Wayne Bennett.
NRL rookie Jack Bosden blew the crowd away with his trial performances, and NRL ‘returnee’ Bronx Goodwin looks primed to make his mark back in first-grade this season.
The team that takes the field in the Red V this year will be as well-drilled, disciplined, focussed and effective as the team that won the grand final. Darius Boyd hit a new level of form last season, and he can continue to improve and shake up the pecking order of the best fullbacks in the game.
But the impetus that helped the team maintain their intensity through 30 long weeks and some truly heart-wrenching losses – including one to the Titans in the finals series – has faded.
The team that was playing to prove their knockers wrong has succeeded. The dreaded chokers tag is gone. The Dragons are as skilful as they were last September, but their hunger’s been satisfied. It might be time for another team to seize ‘their moment’ and prove their point by snagging an NRL Premiership.
X-Factor: Mark Gasnier lived the fairytale when he swooped back from Europe and through to a grand final. But the famous ‘shimmy shimmy woosh’ hasn’t fully returned. With a full pre-season of training behind him and young players like Kyle Stanley pushing for recognition, Gasnier will begin to – and needs to – rediscover his canny knack of making space out of a defensive wall and making a contest out of a seemingly lost cause.
Main man: Jamie Soward has found a new confidence under Wayne Bennett, but for the Dragons to maintain their dominance, Soward needs to balance his choices between kicking and running, increase his consistency and offer his line the full range of attacking opportunities, including those on the under-used right hand side.
Predicted 2011 finish: Second
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