Similarly, to the Newcastle Knights, the St George Illawarra Dragons were left in the lurch after the departure of legendary coach Wayne Bennett and experienced some seriously lean years, having to contend with an aging and overpaid roster.
However, off the back of a major recruitment and retention overhaul led by club legend and now head coach Paul โMaryโ McGregor and Director of list management Ian Milward, the Dragons have assembled a roster stocked full of representative talent.
While the squad the Red V currently have at their disposal is impressive, this came about as a result of a large-scale revamp in Wollongong, with more than a few favourite sons of the club forced out the door.
Here are the top 10 players the Dragons have let go, not re-signed or released since 2000.
The players have been listed in accordance with the contribution they made whilst at the Dragons as well as considering the influence they have had at the clubs they left the Dragons for.
Honourable mentions: Brett Morris, Luke Bailey, Trent Merrin, Jamie Soward, Trent Barrett
1. Craig Fitzgibbon
While almost all NRL fans will remember Craig Fitzgibbon for his time in the tri-colours of the Sydney Roosters, Fitzgibbon actually hails from the South Coast having played his junior football with Dapto before joining the Illawarra Steelers, and then the joint merger of Illawarra and St George for their inaugural season.
Fitzgibbon began his career at the Illawarra Steelers, the wide running back-rower had a dynamic start to his career, being named rookie of the year as well as being the Steelersโ top point-scorer in his debut season. After the merger of Illawarra and St George, Fitzgibbon featured primarily off the bench for the Dragons and played in their 1999 Grand Final loss.
The Illawarra junior then departed the Dragons following their Grand Final loss, opting to sign with the Sydney Roosters for the 2000 season. In the following 10 seasons, Fitzgibbon would forge himself as a club legend at the tri-colours, being a rare breed of forward who was both as damaging in general play as he was off the kicking tee.
During his 10-year stint in Bondi, Fitzgibbon would collect more trophies and awards than I have had hot dinners, winning the 2004 Dally M Representative Player of the year, 2004 Wally Lewis Medal, 2002 Clive Churchill Medal, as well as gaining a premiership ring thanks to the Roosters' Grand Final victory over the Warriors in 2002.
The hard-running back-rower would also go onto feature 19 times for Australia and in 11 Origins for the Blues, and to this day is still the greatest point-scoring forward in the history of the NRL.
Having been named Roosters captain in 2006, Fitzgibbon was a coachโs dream, possessing a scarcely believable work rate and being noted as the ultimate team man by outgoing Roosters captain Luke Ricketson.
A player whose work ethic and achievements can never be questioned, itโs just a shame for Dragons fans that Fitzgibbon did it all in the red white and blue, instead of the red and white.
Slow news day…
Firstly J Moz left because he could not get a start in front of Gasnier and then Gasnier left and came back half way through the premiership winning season (Obviously to get a ring) which the dragons didn’t need him. Signed for bihg bucks and screwrfd the dragons by retiring early. (He didn’t retire because of injury).
The rest such as Pattern, Ennis, Cook left very young. No one knew they were going to go onto better things
Well said – 100% agree with you.
I wish we could add Tim Lafai to the list……..
Salary cap played a big part in this as did Gasnier with J Moz and Bennett also.
Another contributor is the youth coming through the system, the Dragons can’t keep everyone (ask Penrith fans they’ll agree)
and also injuries (Young, Creagh etc)
The only thing Dragons have got wrong imo is the way they’ve used some of the youth, relied to heavily on the old heads instead of blooding. For example all those times we played De Belin in the halves when younger players would’ve jumped at the chance.
Cheers
Bennet didn’t want J Moz, didn’t think he was up to it. J Moz did not want to leave. More fool us. Can’t believe Leeson Ah Mau isn’t on the list, awesome forward and how’s he going at the worriers?
Luke Bailey deserves far than an honourable mention, Iโd have him at 2 after Fitzgibbon. Iโm also surprised Riddell isnโt on the list, he was more of a loss than someone like Kite.