We're looking back at the five players we would love to bring back from the St George-Illawarra Dragons.
For those who have missed recent editions, we choose five former players who could return to the club to improve their chances of winning a title.
See also – If we could bring back 5 players from: Cronulla Sharks, New Zealand Warriors, Canterbury Bulldogs, Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys
The rules are similar to normal, being that we don't include current players who have moved clubs, or players who have retired in the past few seasons. These are players who I have seen in my lifetime, so anyone who played 30+ years ago isn't considered.
For today though we're adding a new rule. These are players who represented the joint venture club and not Steelers or Dragons prior to the merger.
As always, let us know below who you would bring back to help the Red V back to the promised land.
The Dragons have had some incredible centres throughout the years. Unfortunately the 2020 version of the Red V are a little lacking in strike power by comparison.
A return from one of the game's elite centres is an absolute no brainer. Gasnier immediately improves the backline in a big way with his presence.
He only played 175 for the Dragons, scoring 92 tries, but Gasnier was one of the all time greats. A regular for NSW and Australia, Gasnier's explosive power would make the Dragons a much more dangerous side.
Although younger viewers will recognise Gasnier more for his commentary on Fox Sports but us older readers will remember that step, that explosiveness and that offload.
Gasnier, despite a relatively short career, is one of the game's best centres in the NRL era and would walk into and hugely improve this current Red V lineup.
I don't mean to pile on here on the current crop of Dragons centres, Aitken, Williame and Tim Lafai aren't exactly park footballers, but reuniting the Gasnier/Cooper Premiership centre pairing is just too hard to pass up.
Cooper edges out the great Mark Coyne due to the fact he played a much larger part in the joint venture clubs history to date.
Cooper represented the Red V on 244 occasions, scoring 125 tries. He made 13 appearances for the Blues and kitted up for the national side 7 times. I honest thought Cooper was up around the 300 game mark given his accomplishments.
Much like Gasnier, Cooper is best remembered for his explosiveness as well as pure power. The amount of times I thought he was contained only to burst through tackles cannot be quantified.
The Gasnier/Cooper combination turns the Dragons into a genuine threat right away. A weaponry centre pairing us hugely important in the current game.
I feel like I'm picking on the backline again here but outside either Gasnier or Cooper would be one of the club's all time most prolific try-scorers in the form of Nathan Blacklock.
156 tries in his 193 first grade games, including a ridiculous 100 tries in 114 games for the St George-Illawarra version of his stint at the Dragons, makes him one of the modern game's best ever.
It's downright ridiculous that Blacklock never played for New South Wales. He did face some serious competition for a flank role however his ability to cross the line from literally anywhere made him super dangerous.
I'm sure Ben Hunt would give almost anything to have Blacklock on the wing. He was so quick, so powerful, so good in the air.
He topped the NRL try scoring list three years in a row between 1999 and 2001. Incredible!
The current Dragons forward pack is pretty stacked. Frizzell, Graham, Vaughan, Merrin. All rep quality players. That said, the Dragons could really use the returning Shaun Timmins.
He would fit straight into lock, where he played almost as a second five-eighth. Although the role has changed a little bit since his playing days, Timmins was never one to not throw his hand up for the difficult hit up either.
A Steeler turn Dragon, Timmins represented the club on 124 occasions, adding to his 86 for Illawarra prior to the merger. He has 9 NSW jumpers and 9 more for the Kangaroos on his resume across multiple positions.
One of the genuine utilities, Timmins could play lock, second row, centre of even in the halves. Few will forget his match-winning drop goal for the Blues in 2004.
There seems to be one controversial and often debated pick each and every week in this section, and this week will be no different as we name Anthony Mundine as the fifth player.
Right now the Dragons have two rep quality halves. That said, neither can seem to be able to dominate games out of nowhere. Both Hunt and Norman are brilliant players, overly criticised in my mind, but neither hold the pure flair and brilliance of the former Dragons pivot Mundine.
Again, younger readers will know Mundine purely as a boxer, but he should be best remembered for his role with the Dragons in 99/00.
He only played 33 times for the Red V following the merger, however he took them to a Grand Final almost on his own back. He was only a pass away from delivering a title in back to back man of the match efforts.
No Sharks fan will forget what he did in 99 in that prelim. I try every day to forget it. It still haunts me to this day.
Choc was a ridiculously talented footballer and I wish he had stayed in the game and become everything his undoubted talent promised.
The safer option here would have been Horny or Soward, both having Premiership winners medals, however to see Mundine with that centre pairing and Blacklock outside them, combined with Frizell, McInnes and Vaughan? Phwoar!
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