St George Illawarra caretaker coach Dean Young has continued to put his stamp on the winless team, insisting players remain at Dragons headquarters for a full working day.
The 2010 premiership-winner had little time to prepare for his first game in charge – a 62-16 annihilation by the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day – but a bye in the following round has allowed him additional time to enact change before Saturday’s match against Newcastle at WIN Stadium.
Young showed he was not afraid to make big calls on the day he was rolled out as the replacement for Shane Flanagan for the rest of the season, moving on assistant coach Michael Ennis and dumping Flanagan’s son Kyle from halfback to the interchange bench in favour of rookie playmaker Kade Reed.
It’s now emerged he has made broader change at the Dragons in his first fortnight since taking over, notably instructing players to be at their Wollongong base for a full day’s work rather than just for training sessions and other meetings and commitments such as treatment and analysing video footage.
“We’ve changed the way he wants to structure things around the way we train, the way we rock up and when we finish,” centre Valentine Holmes said on Wednesday.
“He’s not telling us what we’re doing at training, it’s just ‘you’re in by 7 o’clock, you leave by 5 o’clock, and when we’re here, we’re here to work’. That’s one thing that’s definitely changed, and I think it’s been good.”
According to the club, the times the players must be at the Bruce Gordon Centre are not the same all week, but on the days that the Dragons train they are expected in for a full eight hours as prescribed by the coaching staff.
On Wednesday, when they held their main session before the Knights game, they were in from 8am to 4pm.
Veterans Holmes and Clint Gutherson endorsed the move by Young, who is attempting to secure the head coaching job on a permanent basis.
“They’re just trying new things and the way they want to do it. We’re here for a set time and I love it,” Gutherson said. “The more time you’re at training, the more time you get to hang out and build those relationships and work on our footy. That’s what we get paid to do and that’s what we need to do.”
Gutherson will return from a hamstring injury to reclaim his place at fullback from Tyrell Sloan on Saturday.
Whether he keeps the spot next season is another story, with Scott Drinkwater to arrive from the Cowboys.
But Gutherson said he was not looking that far down the track and was right behind the Drinkwater signing, revealing he had sent the North Queensland No.1 a text message before it was finalised to try and convince him to join the club.
A more immediate addition for the Dragons is rising forward Dylan Egan, who has spent nearly a year on the sidelines after rupturing an anterior crucial ligament in one of his knees.
The Gerringong product made a major impression in his debut season last year before it was cut short by injury and has been brought straight into the starting side after scoring a double in his return to NSW Cup last week.
The 21-year-old said it had been difficult watching on helplessly as the Dragons slumped to defeat in their first eight matches this year.
“I know first hand the effort and blood, sweat and tears that they put in and to see them get no rewards for that … I can’t wait to come back and do whatever I can to try and help them get a win,” he said.
Egan previously sustained a meniscus injury to his left knee at the Dragons before reaching NRL level and his comeback tale has touched teammates, a group of whom turned up to watch his long-awaited return in reserve grade.
“It’s a cool story to tell. [I’ve got] goosebumps now talking about it,” said Holmes, who will line up on the Dragons’ left side next to Egan.
“He’s just such a humble kid … a hard worker. He’s emotional – he talks a fair bit about obviously his journey here and he’s been through some bad injuries.
“He tackles hard, he runs hard. He’s just the type of guy you want in your team and I’m so happy to kind of be outside him again and play alongside him again.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.