It was the Friday before the Manly game in round four when St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan asked Ben Hunt for a quiet word.
The Dragons were enjoying their weekly barbecue behind WIN Stadium and Flanagan wanted to get something off his chest.
All the headlines swirling around the club were about Zac Lomax wanting out at the end of this season – or even earlier. But Flanagan was interested in players who wanted to stay; he wanted to know if Hunt wanted to stick around beyond the end of his existing deal, which ends in 2025.
It was quite a turnaround, given Hunt demanded a release from the club just 10 months earlier. The skipper was already contracted for next year, but Flanagan wanted his halfback, captain and marquee man to start thinking seriously about playing on for another 12 months.
“I asked him, ‘What are you thinking about in the long term, and what does life look like for you at the end of next year?’” Flanagan says. “I know he has bought some property, that he’s been thinking the end is near, and how he might head home to country Queensland to retire.
“But I wanted him to know I was thinking about him in 2026. Benny is like Daly Cherry-Evans, where he looks after his body and is fit. I also want to attract elite players to this club, and a lot of questions I know I will be asked by elite players is, ‘Will Ben Hunt still be at the club?’
Dragons fans are shocked Hunt is there now. In June last year Hunt wanted out altogether in the hope he could get back home to Queensland.
His good friend and coach Anthony Griffin had been shown the door, the club had failed to land a major signing and was on track to miss yet another NRL finals campaign.
After helping the Maroons to another Origin series victory, Hunt stood in the Suncorp Stadium sheds and told journalists: “We’ve enjoyed our time in Sydney, but we’re ready to come home. I have a meeting with the club on Monday and ‘Flanno’. I’m just hopeful they listen. We’ll see how we go.”
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