Dragons confident despite dry July
Local Sport
Picture: Adam McLean
THEY’VE been the only permanent fixture in the top four this season, so St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor is understandably baffled by questions about whether his side can finish there.
The Dragons slipped to fourth, their lowest ladder position this year, with their 36-18 loss to the Roosters last week. It was their third loss in their last four games heading into Saturday’s home clash with the Warriors in Wollongong.
The Panthers, Sharks and Broncos all sit just one win adrift of the Dragons – who risk dropping out of the top four altogether should they lose on Saturday – but a favourable run home still has McGregor’s men in the box seat for a desired top-four finish.
The eighth-placed Warriors are the last top-eight side the Dragons meet en route to September, with games against the Eels (16th), Tigers (ninth) Bulldogs (13th) and Knights (11th) to follow.
It puts them right in the minor premiership hunt, but McGregor said that would merely be the cherry on top of his side’s finals ambition.
“We’re looking finishing in the top four. That was our vision and purpose at the start of the year and nothing’s changed,” McGregor said.
“If you win the minor premiership it’s a bonus, but for us it’s about top four. This competition is ruthless and from round one to now, round 21, we are the only side that’s still in the top four so it’s really important we stay there.
“We’ve been there since round one we take big pride in that and we need to maintain that til round 25 and going into semi-final footy.”
The loss to the Roosters has prompted plenty to suggest another late-season slide is on the cards but, having fielded those same questions since May, McGregor wasn’t interested in answering them on Friday.
“The past is history. It’s a different group of men, we’re in a totally different position to what we’ve been in the last three years so I’m not going to talk about last year,” he said.
‘‘I think every team at different stages go through a month where they could be better. We’ve been through that. That’s July.
‘‘We had a really good debrief after the Roosters on our performance as a team and I feel that there were three key work-ons from the game, one in attack, one in defence and our mindset.
“We’ve got to get them right, not complicate it too much and make sure we’re at our best in important situations around our team-first [mindset]. All systems are underpinned by an excellence of attitude and we’re working towards that.
“We certainly dominated in that facet in the first 10 weeks – we had the best attitude of any team and collectively that’s why we won eight out of 10 games.”
Warriors coach Stephen Kearney has been left fielding similar questions through the middle stretch of the season.
Having sat comfortably in the top four through the opening 15 rounds, they’ve since slipped to eighth with four losses in their past five outings.
Kearney labeled his side’s limp effort against the Titans last week as “soft” and McGregor’s expecting a response on Saturday.
“Their coach called their performance soft and soft is a hard word to a rugby league player,” McGregor said.
“We played them in round seven and it was a really good game, both teams were one and two then and it was probably the best game of the season I think, despite the result.
“I’ve got no buy-in to what the Warriors did last week, they were without some key players [Isaac Luke and Tohu Harris], they’ve got them back.
“They’ve got some talent across the park, that’s why they were a top four side for most of the year early and we expect them to turn up well.”
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/5565179/dragons-confident-despite-dry-july/?cs=302
