Dragons premiership-winner Jamie Soward appointed to club's coaching staff
By
Ben Glover
The Dragons have turned to the man who spearheaded their drought-breaking 2010 premiership to reboot their halves, with
new coach Anthony Griffin appointing Jamie Soward to his staff.
Soward was the game managing general who polarised fans yet became the perfect man to deliver Wayne Bennett's game plan in that famous 2010 team.
His kicking game in particular was the envy of the competition, with Soward perfecting the art of forcing opponents to start their sets deep in their own territory, grinding them into the dirt.
Jamie Soward was a key part of Wayne Bennett's 2010 Dragons premiership-winning side. (Getty)
In many ways it makes him the perfect man for this
Dragons side, with Griffin inheriting two big name halves who have rarely played well alongside each other.
Ben Hunt and
Corey Norman have both been heavily criticised over the past two seasons but both are Origin players, so there's no denying their talent.
Soward has been given the job of finding the key to unlock it, with a focus on game management. Choosing and executing the right kicks at the right time will be a focus and few would deny Soward is an expert in that field.
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"I'm not going in there to reinvent the wheel with Corey and Ben,"
Soward told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"I'm going in there to help refine their game, help them make better decisions and also teach those young guys coming through like Jayden Sullivan, Junior Amone and also Adam Clune.
"I'll try and help show them how you can wrestle back momentum and how you can keep momentum with your kicking game and game management."
Corey Norman and Ben Hunt (centre) have struggled at the Dragons. (Getty)
While the Soward appointment makes sense from the point-of-view that he's a respected ex-Dragons player and has the skills the Dragons lack down to a fine art, there's another side to it that makes for a hell of a reconciliation story.
Soward finished his career under Griffin at the Panthers and the pair fell out spectacularly.
In August 2018 as a guest on Nine's Sports Sunday, Soward was blunt in backing Penrith's decision to axe Griffin and bring back Ivan Cleary.
"I only spent a short time with Anthony Griffin, but from what I found he was very poor in his communication skills," Soward said at the time.
"The game plans were not conducive to the style of football that those guys out there wanted to play and we only saw the best out of the Penrith Panthers when they got behind.
"You'll see the players play a lot freer now."
Anthony Griffin ended Jamie Soward's career at the Panthers. (Getty)
Soward added that Griffin had "underachieved" at both the Panthers and the Broncos, where he was head coach from 2011-2014, and had falsely taken credit for the talented young players he introduced to first grade.
"They had won junior competitions. The academy that they built was all in place before Anthony Griffin got there," Soward said.
"This is what I took offence to - in 2014 we were one game short of the grand final. That to me seemed like a pretty good place [to be in].
"They debuted a lot of juniors that had won the 20s competition. 2015 in the NRL side wasn't great but they still had plenty of young guys come through."
Soward told the Herald that his feelings about Griffin had changed since the pair started working together for Nine radio.
"Anthony and I had a chat working at 2GB the last year and a half," Soward said.
"I've said it before publicly, I don't have many regrets throughout my career but one of those was that I didn't understand or see the game how he did.
" ... I'm very thankful. We've both shown there are no hard feelings there and we've loved working together at 2GB and we're going to continue to work hard to get the Dragons back inside that eight."
https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/jamie-...ng-staff/cfe765ef-c207-4e10-95fb-87de79b77164
allas Kilponen
