Pressure is on Dragons head coach Anthony Griffin to propel his facet into the finals race this season and a “breath of fresh air” within the teaching ranks may very well be the membership’s secret weapon.
Dragons powerbrokers sacked assistant coaches Peter Gentle and Mathew Head throughout a turbulent 2022 season through which the Red V completed in tenth place.
St George Illawarra have missed out on the finals since 2018 and Griffin has failed to guide the group into the highest eight in his two years in cost.
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Former Tweed Heads Seagulls head coach Ben Woolf and Brad Arthur’s right-hand man in 2022, Ryan Carr, signed on assistants for 2023 — and veteran prop Aaron Woods believes the change is strictly what the squad wanted.
“Every coach brings a different idea, last year we had Peter Gentle and Mathew Head and they were outstanding,” Woods advised foxsports.com.au.
“They (the Dragons squad) had them for a couple of years prior, I came in just last year and got some really good ideas from them, but when you get new people in it is just a fresh face.
“It is a change, they bring their ideas, work with Hook (Griffin) and it is just a breath of fresh air.
“The boys have been told one thing for a couple of years now and to get some different ideas from different coaches it does really help.”
Gun centre Zac Lomax echoed his teammates’ opinion and defined the Dragons at the moment want “a lot of direction” to place their greatest out on the park.
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“It has been a bit of a fresh start in regards to having a few new staff in, our new assistants have been outstanding, they have been clear in regards to what they want,” Lomax advised foxsports.com.au.
“They’ve come in and made a real good point to the playing group, I feel that’s what we needed, we need a lot of direction.”
Some pundits have referred to as for Griffin’s sacking and with one other poor begin to the season ‘Hook’s’ head will probably be on the chopping block.
Woods is totally conscious of the criticism and believes if the Dragons can “get their s**t in order” and ship some early wins — the noise will go away.
“We win the first couple of games, it goes away, a lot of people tipped the Cowboys to come last last year, look what they did,” Woods mentioned.
“They lost their first game against the Bulldogs then bang, won six or seven in a row.
“For us we have the bye round one, a lot of people say ‘hey, at least you get two points’, but we want to play, we want to earn those two points.
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“We just need to go out there and be really consistent from Round 2 and get out s**t in order.”
In 2022, the Dragons completed 4 factors behind the Raiders who snuck into the highest eight with 30 factors, equal with the Rabbitohs.
Woods believes if his facet can convert the shut video games, they’re a powerful likelihood of creating the finals.
“We’re excited, we believe we can make it, obviously there’s always knockers outside, but for us we just need to be consistent,” Woods mentioned.
“There were times last year where we had moments and we thought we are going good and then we just did some silly things, like we got beat by the Titans in Magic Round in golden point.
“We had that game all but won with 10 minutes to go and we killed ourselves, we got beat by the Broncos when they have nine blokes out.
“Those two wins and we make the eight, that’s how close this competition is and the good sides, they win those games.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
