If you had have told Ben Hunt in December that St George Illawarra would win half of their first 10 games in 2024, he’d have taken it in a heartbeat,
But the Dragons captain says his side must stop zoning out of games on return from the bye in round 12.
The Dragons beat South Sydney 28-14 on Saturday night to notch their fifth win of the season and equal the number of victories they managed in a torrid 2023 campaign.
The first 10 weeks of Shane Flanagan’s tenure have been quite the rollercoaster for the Dragons, though.
Zac Lomax, Jaydn Su’A and Tyrell Sloan are enjoying their best seasons in recent memory, and the side has claimed impressive home wins over Manly and the Warriors.
But a 60-18 capitulation to the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day and a 38-0 shut-out from the Dolphins in round two have signalled the Flanagan’s Dragons remain a work in progress.
The premiership-winning coach reflected on the season to date ahead of the side’s first bye, which coincides with Magic Round.
“It’s been a pretty tough start, up and down,” he said.
“The pre-season that we had, I think a few of the boys need a bit of a break and need a bit of a break from me, I reckon.”
Hunt, who had agitated to leave the Dragons after they sacked coach Anthony Griffin last year, is taking the good with the bad in 2024.
“We’ve been pretty up and down, patchy,” he said.
“We’ve shown that we can play good footy for periods of time but we just switch off for little periods.
“If you told me at the start of the year if we went into our bye 5-5, I’d probably take it in previous years.”
Hunt said after the bye, the Dragons needed to prioritise keeping focus for entire games.
Lapses in concentration have cost the Dragons, who took early leads in four of their five losses.
“It’s something that’s happened in almost every game, even the ones that we’ve won. We’ve got to try and get that out,” Hunt said.
Second-rower Luciano Leilua is expected to return from his hamstring injury to face Canterbury in round 12.
“I’ll be getting new performance staff if he’s not right next week, I tell you,” Flanagan joked.
“Another week of training and resilience and load into that hammy and he’ll be fine.”