DRAGONS NEED TO PLAY FAST ‘N’ FURIOUS STYLE
IT’S difficult to see anything but a tough season for the Dragons, that is unless coach Anthony Griffin releases the shackles on a collection of rising stars in Jayden Sullivan, Tyrell Sloan and Mat Feagai. If Saints can alter their rigid game plan and come to life through the energy of their younger talent, they might be able to shock a few teams.
BACK
I immediately noticed in the Charity Shield that Zac Lomax had been moved in the pre-season from the right to left-hand centre position. That surprised me because I felt one of the Dragons’ best points of attack last year was Mikaele Ravalawa and Lomax together on the right.
That said, what we saw from Lomax on the left didn’t look great. Elsewhere, there’s no doubt Feagai and Sloan are NRL players, but they are still in a development phase and with that comes ups and downs in performances. The Dragons simply have too many errors in them from their back five.
FORWARD PACK
Jaydn Su’A is a weapon. He’s powerful, athletic and the type of player the opposition don’t like seeing on the Saints team sheet. Other than Su’A, I don’t feel like the Dragons forward pack is up to other teams in the competition. They’re going to have to play out of their skins as a unit to be able to compete with the top teams.
SPINE
Anthony Griffin coaches a lowrisk, high-percentage, physical brand of footy. But as I said, I think it’s time to take the shackles off and look at how other teams are playing. The Dragons need to play fast and ask questions of the opposition through quick play-the-balls, so that we can see the best of Ben Hunt’s running game. By playing up-tempo footy, Dragons fans will then see the best of Sullivan, Feagai and Sloan. Griffin just needs to let them loose.