Dragons place faith in generation next to breathe new fire

At the Dragons’ new $65 million high-performance training base, the last major trophies lifted by St George Illawarra could be seen positioned on the front desk this week.

The 2010 premiership and 2011 World Club Challenge trophies have been brought into the foyer of the Bruce Gordon Centre in Wollongong ahead of the venue’s official opening later this month.

A reminder of the joint venture club’s greatest days, their presence gives context to the Dragons’ decline.

Perennial contenders for the best part of a decade, they made the semi-finals in seven of eight seasons between 2004 and 2011, claiming minor premierships in 2009 and 2010 under Wayne Bennett as well as the NRL title in the second of those years.

Having not reached the top eight for eight years and lost their first eight games in 2026, they won’t need to be building a cabinet in the front office any time soon to accommodate more silverware.

Where the Dragons regime stores hope, though, is in a crop of locally produced emerging players who will finally line up alongside each other against Newcastle at WIN Stadium on Saturday.

Bennett’s drought-breaking grand final winners had a core of former juniors from the Illawarra and St George areas, among them Mark Gasnier, Matt Cooper, Brett Morris, Ben Creagh, Ben Hornby, Trent Merrin, Matt Prior and Dean Young, now the Dragons’ interim head coach.

All of those, except Prior, played for Australia – and even he was picked for NSW later in his career.

In more recent times the Dragons have let too many players from their own catchment area and pathways slip from their grasp.

They include Jackson Ford (New Zealand Warriors), who is second on the Dally M player of the year leaderboard behind Nathan Cleary, as well as NSW hooker Reece Robson (Roosters), Jack Bostock (Dolphins), Reuben Garrick (Manly), Tyran Wishart (Melbourne), Jesse Colquhoun (Cronulla), Dylan Lucas (Newcastle) and South Sydney pair Euan Aitken and Ashton Ward.

But with the return of highly rated second-rower Dylan Egan from a knee reconstruction after nearly a year out of the game, the Dragons finally have a group of their most talented young stars on deck together in the NRL.

It is the first time 21-year-old Egan and fellow forwards Hamish Stewart and the Couchman brothers, Ryan and Toby, will all feature in the same NRL team – and the first time at all since they were teammates in the Dragons’ SG Ball under-19 team. All are starting against the Knights.

Young has also placed faith in rookie halfback Kade Reed, a Wests Illawarra junior, since taking over from Shane Flanagan and his bench includes Dragons academy graduates Jacob Halangahu and Loko Jnr Pasifiki Tonga.

In a bid to turn their fortunes around, the Dragons are banking on more coming off the production line, vowing to protect their patch from rivals.

“We are putting investment into our academy and our pathways because that is the future of the Dragons,” St George Illawarra chief Tim Watsford said.

“We are a development club and that’s where we see our future. We’ll put Border Force up around our footprint to ensure we’re giving our guys every chance to succeed in our NRL side.”

While it has been tough to find light at the end of the tunnel from the Dragons’ results this year, there are also green shoots in recruitment.

The Dragons paused negotiations with players coming off contract including co-captain Damien Cook and back-rower Luciano Leilua before Flanagan’s exit. The Dragons on Friday confirmed Cook will depart at the end of the season after securing a two-year deal with English Super League club Castleford.

But the acquisition of Scott Drinkwater from the Cowboys on top of Souths’ Keaon Koloamatangi for next season gives Dragons supporters reason for a brighter outlook even if this year is a write-off.

Watsford said the signing of Drinkwater was an endorsement of the club’s blueprint.

“He believed in the direction that we want to go,” he said. “We are constantly in [the] market to ensure we are complimenting our roster and have a great opportunity to sign more in the years ahead.”

Asked about the retention of off-contract players, he said: “We want to ensure we are making the best decisions with regard to recruitment in future years. As such we will work with both those off contract together with being actively in market to build a competitive roster.”

For now, they have to make do with what they’ve got.

While it has been a grim campaign to date, the next generation of Dragons at least offer promise, not least Egan.

He burst onto the scene last year, fast becoming one of the team’s best players before rupturing his knee after only eight appearances.

The placement of the NRL trophy just inside the entrance to Dragons headquarters won’t have gone missing on him.

Egan said he had wanted to play for the club since “that six-year-old dream that I had back when I was a kid in 2010 watching the Dragons win the premiership”.

“I always grew up supporting the Dragons and always wanted to be a player myself,” he said.

“I just can’t wait to go out there and put that jersey on again and represent it to the best of my ability.”