NRL 2022: Will Wayne Bennett make play for Jack Bird if Dragons fail to offer star fresh contract?
While signing a fresh contract and staying with the Dragons is his top priority, Jack Bird won’t be short of suitors if he is forced onto the free market, including interest from one former mentor.
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Wayne Bennett says he would relish the chance to coach Jack Bird again as the off-contract Dragons back-rower targets playing finals football and securing a new deal.
News Corp revealed last month that Bird’s management and the Dragons had not been able to come to terms on a new contract and that Bird and Dolphins coach Bennett had been in touch about a possible reunion.
Bird, who scored a try in the Dragons 28-16 win over the Warriors, said he relished his short stint under Bennett at the Broncos in 2018. The 26-year-old wants to secure an extension at St George Illawarra but Bennett is monitoring the situation.
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“I am a frustrated coach with Jack Bird personally,” Bennett said.
“He came to Brisbane because he thought it was all going to work out for him. We wanted him there and I wanted to coach him. It just went sour. His injury. My departure.
“There is still a big part of me that would like to coach him again. I like what he brings. He is a good bloke to be around and I got to enjoy his company off the field.
“We will just see where it all goes. At the end of the day, Jack has the final say in it all.”
Bennett has such a high opinion of Bird that he has actively recruited him twice.
“I was at the Dragons when we recruited him and went on to play in the 20s. I went with Craig Young to meet him and his parents.,” Bennett said.
Bird is aware of Bennett’s interest but has not given up hope of wearing the Red V in 2023.
“Me and Wayne talk all the time. Me and Wayne are close,” Bird said.
“I loved the chance to play with Wayne at the Broncs but it didn’t really pan out.
“I do want to stay at the Dragons and I have made that clear. My family is down there. My friends are down there. So my main priority is to get a contract at the Dragons. If not, I have got to explore my options.”
A month ago the Dragons were tipped in several quarters to be wooden spooners this year, but Bird will have none of it.
“There is no chance of that. I laugh at that. You hear it everywhere,” Bird bristled.
“Everyone has got their opinions and it is (motivation) for us for sure because we know what we can do, and we play for one another.
“The goal is to make finals this year and play as a real team. I thought we did that (against the Warriors) and we are only going to get better. We can make the finals for sure.
“This is just the product of what we are building,” Bird said of the Dragons fightback against the Warriors
“We were down (16-14) with 20 minutes left and we scored three late tries and put them away and there’s no way we would have done that at the end of last year. We have bought some really good players and we bought them for a reason, to make our team stronger and win us games.”
Bird said he was also relishing his positional switch and his reunion with former Broncos teammate Jaydn Su’A in the back-row.
“I played back-row at the Dragons in the under 20s when I was here in 2013 and 2014. I am enjoying it,” Bird said.
“It is not too different to the centres, and I probably get a bit more ball. I am just happy to be playing with confidence and getting back to my best.
“Me and Su’A are close. We complement each other. He will bring a whole new dimension to our game, just that big back-rower on the edge.”
Silky Sloan just warming up as new-look Dragons fire
Tyrell Sloan put an emphatic stamp on the Dragons fullback position and a rampaging Mikaele Ravalawa scored a bulldozing hat-trick to inspire a 28-16 win over the Warriors and bury the embers of BBQ-gate.
The Dragons lost their last eight games of the 2021 season following BBQ-gate, all north of the border, but this is a new-look team with 19-year-old Sloan and five-eighth Talatau Amone, also 19, providing the team enthusiasm and class.
Dragons back-rower Jack Bird said Sloan was “killing it” at fullback and predicted a big future ahead.
“He is a skinny, long thing who runs with intent and has all the skills, but this is just the start for him,” Bird said.
“Sloany is just 19 and has a decade in first grade ahead of him. He just has to stay humble and keep his head on and he is destined for big things.”
Sloan set up two tries inside the first 14 minutes at Sunshine Coast Stadium with silky balls for Ravalawa and Bird to score but the Dragons lost their way as Warriors forwards Josh Curran and Addin Fonua-Blake took it upon themselves to inspire a comeback in halfback Shaun Johnson’s first game on his return to the club.
The Dragons fell in a hole and trailed 16-14, after leading 12-0, and there were some disjointed sets as six players — Aaron Woods, Jaydn Su’A, Moses Mbye, Moses Suli, Frank Molo and Jack Gosiewski — all made their club debuts.
Mbye and Su’A both played key hands in getting the Dragons back to the lead and gave coach Anthony Griffin a winning start to the year and vindication for the significant roster changes he has made in the past 12 months.
The Dragons, tipped in some quarters as wooden spooners, looked anything but.
“I was just happy with the way we knuckled down when we got behind,” Griffin said.
“Last year is last year. It is a different group and it feels different. Obviously they haven’t played a lot of footy together and it is going to take us a while to get into a real groove.”
SILKY SLOAN
Sloan scored six tries in his five games last year but he’s more than a finisher. His creative powers were the highlight against the Warriors. The best players have both time and timing and he showed both with his early try assists and made the difficult look ridiculously easy, particularly with a sleight of hand inside ball for Bird to score. The Dragons have the 19-year-old on their books until the end of 2024 and it is scary to think how good he will be by then.
RAVALAWA RAMPAGE
The bullocking Fijian gave opposite number Marcelo Montoya nightmares and had no right to score two of his tries which involved trampling over Warriors with contempt. It was the kind of individual effort that the Dragons craved to start the season and was also a sign of a tough mindset that the entire side displayed to fight back when the Warriors appeared to be on top.
PRODIGAL SON RETURNS
Johnson is not the Messiah for the Warriors or the stepping, will-o’-the-wisp that he was when he last played for the club in. He does have a lot more tricks up his sleeve and he knows when to bring them out. Johnson totally bamboozled Gosiewski to send Curran into space for Wade Egan to score to continue the Warriors comeback. His short ball to put Eliesa Katoa over looked forward but it was a classic double-pump. The 31-year-old will be salivating at the prospect of brilliant Reece Walsh returning from suspension against the Titans. It wasn’t his best display, but it was his first game of the season and Warriors fans would have seen enough to believe his second coming will be a successful one.
“Shaun had some positive stuff,” Warriors coach Nathan Brown said.
“We would like to think that with some of the things that Reece showed us last year that playing with Shaun is going to be good for him.
“That is going to be good for us ... but we need to build more pressure. It is not at the consistent level we need it to be to be a good footy team.”
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