After an unusually slow start to the year from St George Illawarra, coach Paul McGregor has had to come out in defence of his recent mid-game rotation of the all-important spine, telling NRL360 co-hosts Ben Ikin and Paul Kent that the shuffle was out of “necessity.”
With the Dragons' spine already having limited time to develop combinations thanks to the late arrival of Corey Norman and Gareth Widdop's return from major shoulder surgery, many fans and pundits alike have called for St George Illawarra to scrap the mid-game positional shifts of Cameron McInnes, Ben Hunt and Gareth Widdop.
However, McGregor believes that his persistence could eventually pay off.
“In the pre-season we floated a few things about having all our players on the field at the same time,” McGregor told NRL 360.
“We have got Hunt at No.7 who can play No.9 and plays for his state and country there.
“We have Cameron McInnes who can play No.13 and we have two halves in Corey Norman and Gareth Widdop and Matt Dufty at the back, when they are all on at the same time.
“The first couple of weeks it has been out of necessity at times because we are missing three middles.
“We lost Tyson Frizell in the first game after a period of the game and the second game we didn’t start with Tyson, Jack de Belin or Korbin Sims.
“So we moved Cameron to No.13 and put Dufty on so we have quality players on the field at the same time.”
With the Dragons struggling for depth thanks to the suspension of Jack De Belin, and the untimely injury of Tyson Frizell, McGregor has detailed the tactic to be aimed at getting his best players on the park at the same time.
“But at the moment it is about getting your best players on the field, while we have a few quality players missing.”
“We want to sustain pressure through defence for the attack to work and we need our better defenders on the field for longer periods and Cameron is certainly that and Benny defends well in the middle.”
With the Dragons lacking quality replacements in the back-row and with no set return date for the suspended Jack De Belin, strap yourselves in Dragons fans because you could see this tactic being employed more than you would like.