St George Illawarra have moved to re-sign junior representative quartet Junior Amone, Tyrell Sloan, Josh Coric and Jackson Shereb-Schmidt.
All four of them featured in the Illawarra Steelersโ SG Ball win in 2019, but Sloan and Amone will be in the Dragonsโ 2021 development player squad.
Amone committed to the Dragons on a three-year deal after significant interest from other NRL clubs.
โJunior has been a part of our succession planning for a while now,โ Dragons director of rugby league pathways and list management Ian Millward told the club website.
"Junior is a player who typifies exactly what we want to develop through our pathways; he has a great attitude and his attention to detail remains strong.โ
Sloan has represented New South Wales in the under-18s and has also signed a three-year deal.
"Tyrell is capable of playing fullback and wing and has exceptional skills in the air," he said.
โWe are keen for him to develop physically, which is why he will come into our full-time environment in 2021โฆ He has some exciting years ahead of him.โ
Coric and Shereb-Schmidt are players to look out for in the future, with both young men signing four-year deals.
โJosh has reached a level in his game that promted the club to include him in our succession planning,โ he said.
โHeโs a rough, tough front-rower from Albion Park down in Group 7 and heโll continue in our system which weโre certainly excited for.
โJackson is a young back-rower from Kandos who we sourced through our external recruitment pathway for our Harold Matthews team several years ago.
"Heโs tall and rangy, and a player we see can add a bit of size in the back row within our succession planning."
Dragons general manager of football Ben Haran told the Dragons website that it is a delight to have the young boys commit as the Dragons look towards building up a dynasty in the long-term.
โFor them to progress to the NRL Squad having previously won an SG Ball competition together is pleasing,โ he said.
โThey will come into an environment where they can all be comfortable in each other's company, which will hopefully provide them all a great opportunity to continue their careers as a collective and hopefully win premierships at the highest level.
โZac (Lomax) is a great example of this pathwaysโ success. Heโs someone who has found their feet in first grade, performed well and now finds himself in New South Walesโ Origin squad.
These names might not mean much at present, but if you look at how many young Dragons have come through the pathways system makes me think that the club are doing a lot of good things with their juniors. It’s a pity the first grade team have become such a rabble.