Hungry Dragons
Dragons coach Nathan Brown today said that his current St George Illawarra side is the hungriest side he has ever worked with in the off-season.
With the loss of several stars at the end of last year, the signs didn't look good for the Dragons. However new training techniques and an all round passion from players and staff in the off-season has the NRL club ready to fire.
Nathan Brown commented on how his coaching skills continue to develop and improve - and the he now understands playing the role of a manager rather than a coach. Brown believes his role of an overseer rathan than hands-on coach is much more productive, seeing assistants such as Paul McGregor split the squad into three groups and focus on certain skills within each group.
Brown also explained how he looks up to Brian Smith as a teacher and learnt valuable skills during his time on Brian Smith's Country Origin Coaching crew.
The players at the Dragons are also raring to go; Prop Forward Jason Ryles is pumped up and ready to take a leadership role and has performed well throughout the off-season. The 113kg veteran of 8 origins and 15 tests says he hasn't lost passion even though he has had some big injury set backs during his career.
New buy Simon Woolford has settled in well and the veteran of 14 years at the Raiders and 233 first grade games has also been asked to take control and assist with a leadership role on and off park.
Young forward Ashton Sims is ready to step into the big void left by Luke Bailey. Sims claims he wants to be more like his childhood hero Mark Geyer and take on an enforcer role within the squad.
With so much of the Dragon's talent being off-line due to injuries in the past, a strong focus is now placed on injury management and prevention. A specialised program is now part of on-going training sessions to ensure players are warmed up and down correctly and all care is taken to ensure drills will not endanger the players health.
