Marshall gamble has paid off for the Dragons

The on-field evidence proves St George Illawarra were making the right decision when they signed Benji Marshall. He has changed the way he plays so that he can fit in with the Dragons – rather than them having to fit in with him.

The early evidence suggested the Dragons had made a big mistake getting involved with Marshall. His first game for them was an absolute shocker, in a 36-0 loss to Parramatta.

Presumably motivated by the desire to show he still had what it took, after his career at Wests Tigers had petered out and he had failed to master rugby union, Marshall was guilty of trying to do too much.

It was something he had been guilty of on numerous occasions at the Tigers, but it wasn’t an issue then because his ability to win games on his own far outweighed his ability to lose them.

Even in some of the games where he made the mistake of trying to do too much, he was still able to turn it around by coming up with a match-winning play.

But the Dragons couldn’t afford Marshall to be like that with them.

Unlike his teammates at the Tigers, the Dragons players didn’t have the luxury of knowing Marshall as well as the Tigers did – as well as you can know such an often spontaneous player, anyway.

And as good as Marshall still had the potential to be, he wasn’t going to be able to reproduce the freewheeling brilliance of his greatest days at the age of 29.

His mistakes were going to have a greater impact on his new team’s chances of winning. He needed to find a way to do the type of things he does within the structure the Dragons used. He couldn’t expect the Dragons to allow everything to revolve around him. It was too late in his career for that.

There had to be a balance and a slightly more conservative approach that allowed Marshall to use elements of his brilliance, but without the risk of it overtaking what the Dragons were trying to do and bringing them undone.

It looks like they have found that balance.

Marshall made four errors in that first game against the Eels. It was a nightmare debut. He tried delving deep into his bag of tricks when he really shouldn’t have even brought the bag with him that week.

He hardly knew his new teammates. How were they going to know straight away what he was going to do when it had taken his old teammates at the Tigers a long time to get used to playing with him?

And even after the Tigers did get used to him there were still times when they failed to read what he was going to do and moves fell apart.

The Dragons had the bye in the round after the loss to the Eels, which was great timing because it gave Marshall two clear weeks of training in which to become more familiar with his teammates.

In their next game, a 29-10 loss to South Sydney, he made two errors, ran the ball a bit more and came up with two tackle breaks.

Next the Dragons beat Cronulla 30-0. It was Marshall’s breakout game for the club. He had three try assists, one line-break, three line-break assists and made just one error.

Marshall made three errors in the 18-14 loss to Penrith and three again in the 19-18 win over Gold Coast, but in the team’s last two games – a 24-12 win over Melbourne and 27-24 win over North Queensland – he made just one error in each match.

He has posted one try assist in each of his last three games, which means that in the four games the Dragons have won from the seven in which Marshall has played, has has had a total of six try assists.

But he hasn’t done it by being the highly unpredictable, freakish version of Marshall. There have been some spectacular plays, but there is a greater element of control from him in his new football life.

Gareth Widdop is the most important player in the St George Illawarra team. He essentially leads them around and controls the tempo of the game from five-eighth. Plus, he adds his own flashes of brilliance as part of his playmaking.

The style of play we’re seeing from Marshall makes it easier for Widdop to do his job effectively. The opposition can’t concentrate on simply trying to shut Widdop down because of the threat also offered by Marshall.

And Marshall, by not trying to do too much and over-playing his hand, makes it hard for the opposition to pick which of those two players is the threat at any given time.

It’s working for the Dragons at the moment. They have improved significantly all-round as a team recently. The appointment of Paul McGregor as interim coach clearly agrees with the players, and McGregor and Marshall are working very well together.

All of a sudden, the Dragons could make the finals and it wouldn’t be a shock.