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
4. Josh Morris
While the Morris family have been incredible servants to the St George Dragons, and St George Illawarra merger respectively, the Red V hierarchy will no doubt rue the day they let Josh Morris walk out the door.
Born and raised in Dragons heartland at Kiama and having played his junior football for the Kiama Knights, Morris would go onto make his first-grade debut for his local club in 2007 and played a variety of position across his two-year, 46 game stint for the Dragons.
However, sadly for the Morris family, Josh had to depart the Dragons at the end of the 2009 season, due to a mixture of โsalary capโ issues according to father Steve and not being viewed as a player of great promise by new coach Wayne Bennett.
As a result, Morris signed with the Bulldogs in hope of securing a regular spot in the centres and injury permitting he did so. Having bounced around the backline at St George Illawarra, Morris cemented himself as the Bulldogs' starting left centre, with his impressive form earning himself his State of Origin debut for the Blues in Game II of the 2009 series, as well as featuring in the Kangaroos touring squad for the end of season Four Nations tour.
In the following years, Morris has forged a name as the game's premier defensive centre, often handed the task of man-marking Greg Inglis in the State of Origin and doing so to great effect. However, Morris is equally effective on the attacking end, registering 129 tries and 55 try assists from his 275 NRL appearances, equating to 0.66 try involvements per game throughout his career.
Only three years after departing the Dragons having not been viewed as a player of promise by Wayne Bennett, Morris was named Dally M Centre of the Year and would go onto feature in six Tests for the Kangaroos and 15 Origins for the Blues. Cementing himself in Blues folklore in Game I of the 2014 series, chasing down and tackling a rampaging Greg Inglis after being told he had injured his ACL mere moments prior.
While the Dragons were never lacking quality centres, with Matt Cooper and Mark Gasnier owning the three and four jerseys for the majority of their playing days, the career and achievements of Josh Morris can never be called into question.
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.