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St George Illawarra 2019: Graham finds silver lining to Newcastle thumping
Dragons Den
IT was the low point of their season but Dragons veteran James Graham says his side can take a slither of inspiration from their disappointing loss to Newcastle - ironically in the performance of the Knights.
The 33-point win over the Dragons at Mudgee was the Knights fourth on the trot. It was barely a month ago that Nathan Brown's head was on the chopping block after five straight losses.
One of those defeats came by a single point to the Dragons in golden-point. That victory was the second in a four-game winning streak for Paul McGregor's side.
They've followed it up with four consecutive defeats ahead of Sunday's clash with Cronulla but Graham said Newcastle's run is a reminder of how quickly things can change.
"I think on the positive spin, we know we can go and win four games in a row, because we've done it, we know what we're capable of," Graham said.
"You look for inspiration from other teams, you look at Newcastle.
"Yeah we played them five weeks ago, we knew they were a good team then. They played well, it was 13-12, look where they've got to now.
"I don't see any reason why we can't do something similar. Obviously we're not looking five weeks down the track, we're focusing on this weekend's game."
Graham admits he was left baffled by the performance against Newcastle, one that prompted McGregor to wield the big stick in the selection room.
It's certainly put the side on notice ahead of the clash with the Sharks, with Graham saying he's not complacent about his own place in the 17.
"I'm all in, even myself," he said.
"If [McGregor] for whatever reason doesn't think I'm performing to the standard that he expects for the team, if he was to drop me, than i'll have to take that like a man.
"There's probably a number of reasons as to why. Probably the reason why everyone's so frustrated and so down about the performance is we know we're a lot better.
"We know that we were way better than what we dished up on the weekend. That's probably the main reason why people are down, why the criticism is coming.
"Even externally, we know we're a lot better with the players and the squad and coaching staff, we're a lot better than that.
``What I'm seeing is that we're pretty hurt from the performance and everybody's pretty determined to turn it around."
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au...-silver-lining-to-newcastle-thumping/?cs=3713
He will use that excuse.
He should be ok, the head knock was last week in training.
How can a team going like busteds have 4 players selected for origin?
There is an article online today titled NRL PLAYERS POLL where the players rate there top players in all positions.
Not one of our players were voted by their peers in a recent poll for best players in a variety of categories. Considering the current form of SGI, this does not surprise me.
