Incoming Dragons coach Shane Flanagan has declared Ben Hunt isn’t going anywhere and that the club has the talent to play semi-finals in 2024.
Flanagan believes the generation of St George Illawarra talent are about to enjoy breakout seasons, while also vowing to add another “two or three players” before Christmas.
The Dragons sacked Anthony Griffin halfway through the season and finished 16th on the ladder after losing several tight games.
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Flanagan promised his players are in for a brutal pre-season that will yield improvements on the scoreboard next season.
“It’ll be tough but it’ll be smart,” he said.
“The program we’ve got in place will make sure we’re in a really good position, we’ll be faster and stronger, I know every club will say the same thing but it will be a real focus of ours.
Tough time ahead but it will be enjoyable.
“There were games early on (in 2023 that we should have won). A few others with goalkicking, we could have won. A couple of ones where we got the wrong end of the refereeing decision and at the back end of the year I thought we competed really hard but we just couldn’t get the result.
“We just need to put a bit of polish on our performance. Without a doubt we’ve got the talent there to play semi-finals and that will be the goal.
“We have to win games away from home, we didn’t do that well at all this year and then make WIN and Kogarah fortresses again and make sure clubs don’t want to go there.”
Flanagan shot down reports that Hunt will leave the club at the end of next season and he’ll be adding more players to his roster before the end of the year.
“It’s a tricky one, the media can sometimes get the answers they want and sometimes they have done that with Ben but Ben will be here next year, he’s confirmed that,” he said.
“Some of the messaging, that he’d like to be back in Queensland, I can understand that but he realises he’s got a contract here at the Dragons and we need him.
“To all the supporters, trust me, I’ll work really hard with Ben and Ben will work hard in the off-season.
“As a club leader he needs to do a lot of work and he will. I’m looking forward to him coming back and seeing the change around the club and I’m sure within three, six, 12 months he won’t want to go anywhere because we’re back winning.
“We’re a competitor and he’s frustrated that the club hasn’t been winning footy games and I’m sure everyone is, so we’ll knuckle down, work hard and win some football games and I’m sure Ben will be happy.
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“We’ll have two or three more before Christmas and then we’ll see what happens, we’ll probably keep two spots available in our top 30 rolling into next year.
“We’ve got some really good juniors coming through on our development list, there’s four or five really good players there and then our train-and-trial players, the quality of the players in there is really good so I’m looking forward to working with them and who knows where those young boys can go.
“We saw the Couchmans make their debuts this year after coming through the program and there’s and a few more to come, so I’m looking forward to those guys getting in another pre-season.”
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