The Gerringong junior is tipped to have a bright NRL future.
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Making his debut for his boyhood club was a dream come true for Dylan Egan.
Having one of his experienced St George Illawarra
Dragons teammates label that debut against Melbourne Storm as one of the best he has seen was the icing on the cake for Gerringong Lions junior Egan.
The 20-year-old naturally felt quite pleased with himself on Saturday afternoon after helping the Dragons record their first win of the season.
Egan was made to feel even better shortly after he was told that
Dragons co-captain Damien Cook labelled Egan's performance as one of the best debuts he had ever seen from a youngster.
"That's a huge thing, especially coming from Cookie. He has been around for a long time, so I take that as a huge honour," he said.
Cook and Dragons coach Shane Flanagan was especially impressed with a run Egan made midway through the second half, which tipped momentum St George Illawarra's way.
"'I saw Liddsy [Jacob Liddle] look at me and look around for who wants to take their run, and he said I looked the most eager. I'm not sure how everyone else looked because I was bloody huffing and puffing, but I knew it was coming my way, and I just wanted to run as hard as I could and try to get the team on the go forward," Egan said.
The mobile forward added that playing a part in securing the Dragons a first win of the season against the premiership favourites at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium was special.
"We spoke about this game all week. We just wanted to play our footy and compete. To do that in front of our fans, who helped us get home at the end, was a dream come true," Egan said.
"
I was a Dragons fan growing up, so just to make your debut in general is a dream come true, but to do it for the club you've been going to for your whole life means a lot."
Not the only Lions junior to debut
Egan was the second Lions junior in as many games to debut for St George Illawarra after Hamish Stewart played his first NRL game in the Red V's round two loss to South Sydney Rabbitohs at WIN Stadium.
As fate had it, another Gerringong junior, Tyran Wishart, was starting at half-back for the Melbourne Storm.
Jackson Ford is another former Lions junior playing NRL football with the New Zealand Warriors.
"I don't know what it is about Gerringong, but everyone there seems to live and breathe footy," Egan said.
"As mentioned, the [Group Seven back-to-back champions] Lions have had great success in recent years. Gerringong just seems to develop good rugby league players.
"I was fortunate to have some good coaches as a junior, namely Dave Ward and John Ford. They've definitely built who I am as a player. They were a big reason why I'm up here now."
Egan added that, in more recent years, teammate Blake Lawrie had helped him develop his own game.
"I'm not the biggest. I'm not the fastest, but I love competing and being in the nitty gritty," he said.
"Guys like Cookie have been great, and so has Blocker [Blake Lawrie], who didn't play today, but over the last three years, he has pushed me and kept me accountable. I owe a lot to blocker."
Lawrie, who played reserve grade last weekend, has a chance of being promoted to the Dragons' first-grade side for the clash against Parramatta at CommBank Stadium on Saturday afternoon now that Emre Guler is facing a hefty ban of at least three games for a crusher tackle.
The Dragons forward was handed a grade-one charge for a crusher tackle on Shaun Blore in St George Illawarra's shock win over Melbourne.
Ordinarily, he would have been able to pay a $1500 fine for the offence, but Guler's record of two charges in his previous three matches means that punishment is greatly embellished.
The starting front-rower will miss three games with an early guilty plea or risk a fourth game on the sideline if he tries to fight the charge and loses.
Meantime, the Illawarra Steeler's Harold Matthews Cup winning streak came to a crashing halt in round 8 against the Sydney Roosters, who dominated 12-0 at Mascot Oval.
The Steelers slipped into second on the ladder, the Warriors taking their place on top with just one round to play before finals.
In SG Ball Cup, the Steelers fought hard to force a draw with the Penrith Panthers, who played the first 10 minutes one-man short due to an early sin-binning.
Likamani Richter scored the final try for Illawarra in the 59th minute before halfback and skipper Kade Reed converted to level.
The side dropped one spot and now hold onto fifth by a point over the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.
In the Tarsha Gale Cup, the Steelers escaped a 10-point halftime deficit to win 16-10 over the Parramatta Eels.
There was less success out of the Lisa Fiola Cup clash, which Eels claimed 20-0.
