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Opinion

Matt Dufty has proven the Dragons' decision making is madness

3rd June, 2021
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3rd June, 2021
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Matt Dufty made the St George Illawarra Dragons look stupid at Kogarah last night.

As the Red V ran up 50 on the Brisbane Broncos, Dufty was everywhere for the club who don’t want him from next year onwards, scoring a double and running on five try assists.

Seven try involvements in a single game is a special game in anyone’s book. It’s even more so the case when you consider the 25-year-old fullback was making his return from injury, and the prevailing weather conditions were less than conducive to good attacking rugby league.

But Dufty didn’t let any of that, or the fact he has just been told by the club that he won’t be needed next year, get in the way of an incredible performance. It was potentially the best of his career, and better than most fullbacks could put together.

While the Dragons’ much-maligned number one still has plenty of questions surrounding his defence, and even last night there were examples of it not being quite up to the mark, Dufty showed exactly what he is capable of bringing to this competition with a mix of scintillating runs with his pace and footwork and excellent passing, setting up teammates left, right and centre.

On top of his seven try involvements, Dufty had 130 metres and four line-break assists. No one is claiming he is the best fullback in the game, but the Broncos defence simply had no answers for him, and they aren’t the first to encounter that issue this year.

The Dragons attack was stagnant at best with Dufty on the sideline – you only have to look at their horror loss to the Tigers last week to realise that. But with Dufty, both before and now after injury, they look a different team.

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Before you say “oh it was just the Broncos,” Dufty had eight tries and five try assists from his ten games before last night, and has been everywhere for the Dragons when on the park this year.

It’s not silly to say he improves others around him too, creating time and space with his speed and footwork, dragging defenders in regularly. His vision has gone from strength to strength too, and you feel he has a far superior eye for the game than he once did.

And while defence and attitude are supposedly the issues, speaking on Channel Nine post-game last night, Billy Slater summed it up best, quipping that “I thought you only replaced someone if you have someone better.”

The Dragons do not have someone better. They didn’t chase (or at the very least, weren’t able to land) Nicho Hynes, Cody Ramsey has proven he is a winger and boom youngster Tyrrel Sloan is not yet ready for first grade.

Sloan will more than likely be the Dragons long-term fullback, but that is a long-term project, with the 18-year-old only making his debut in New South Wales Cup a handful of weeks ago and still sitting on a development deal this season.

With virtually no other top-line fullbacks on the open market come the end of this season, the Dragons’ strategy of allowing Dufty to walk while they look to persist with other club players smacks of incompetence in recruitment, but then, Dragons fans would hardly be surprised.

The list of players who have been able to walk away from the club and make careers of it elsewhere is staggering. And not only that, but the way they have improved once away from the joint venture, going on to greater and bigger things.

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Matt Dufty Dragons fullback

(Image/Darren Pateman)

Reece Robson, Luciano Leilua, Jason Saab, Patrick Herbert, Jai Field, Hame Sele, Jacon Host and Drew Hutchison just to name a few were all talented youngsters coming through the club who failed to kick on, have gone elsewhere and are now in and around first grade.

It’s a scary prospect for the Dragons to know just how poorly the recruitment and retention side of the club has let them down over the past five or six years, and to realise there is now another mistake in the process of being made with Dufty being let go.

Dufty may not be the guy who you can build a premiership around, but he could well prove his worth to be higher than he has shown at the Dragons once he exits the club in 2022, which now seems destined to happen. You’d have to think both the Broncos and Bulldogs will be sniffing around, although solid concrete evidence or even rumours don’t really exist at this stage.

There was more than just Dufty to talk about from Thursday night’s clash though, with Jack De Belin making a very solid return to first grade after almost two and a half years on the sideline. While he only played 25 minutes, it would hardly be a surprise to see him back in the starting team in the coming weeks.

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He, alongside Dufty and Ben Hunt who ran the ball excellently at times, proved what the Dragons can do this year, but they will need to get on a run of form in the next month with a soft run in the draw before a tough finish to the season.

In saying that, the Broncos aren’t a yardstick, and their defence last night was about as pathetic as it gets at times. They did have some nice touches in attack and Albert Kelly seems to have been a good addition for the club, but their defence simply wasn’t good enough.

While the Broncos have a lot of soul searching to do, the Dragons aren’t in the clear either with their defence soft in stretches.

Still, that won’t be what comes out of last night, with Matt Dufty stealing the show but not having a contract for 2022.

It’s baffling.

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