KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021: Jayden Sullivan and childhood teammates lead Dragons’ Generation Next
The Dragons may be one of the favourites for the wooden spoon, but the future may not be nearly as bad as some fans think.
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It’s the playmaking combination 13 years in the making that can give St George Illawarra fans hope the seasons to come may be a whole lot more promising than they think.
The Dragons went down 36-26 to the Sharks in their first trial of the season on Friday night but in fullback Tyrell Sloan and halves Junior Amone and Jayden Sullivan the Red V have a trio of players they may be able to build their future around.
The three local juniors have been playing together for most of their lives and all showed flashes of brilliance against Cronulla — Sullivan scored a try and set one up for Sloan via a sharp inside ball while Amone created a score for prop Josh Coric with a classy grubber.
The only sour note in 19-year-old Sullivan’s night came when he was put on report for a lifting tackle just after halftime and he faces a nervous wait before the charge sheet from the NRL Match Review Committee drops on Monday.
“Junior and Tyrell, I played all my junior footy together with them, went to school with them, our first game together was Under 6s,” said Sullivan.
“To play a first grade trial with them and see them do well, it really puts a smile on my face.
“We’ve just been practising simple footy, inside and outside push, it really gets you onto the ball and I feel like it brings an attacking version of me into the game.
“That’s just how we’ve been training all pre-season and it was good to get it into motion.
“It was a bit scrappy with the boys, we dropped the ball 50 times or something but if we’d fixed the completion rate the score would have been different.”
The Dragons may be one of the favourites for the wooden spoon but new coach Anthony Griffin has plenty of talent to blood for the future — the impressive Feagai twins, Max and Matt, are also in the frame for first grade selection.
All five players came through the Illawarra Steelers junior ranks, playing in the club’s 2019 SG Ball premiership-winning side under Sullivan’s captaincy.
While Amone and Sloan are players of the future, Sullivan is rapidly becoming a player of the present — he was best on ground for the Dragons against Cronulla, playing with great poise and defending bravely despite his slight figure.
“Hook is a really good coach and at the start of pre-season he said, ‘obviously your attack is going to come, but if you work on your defence all of this off-season you can be a much better player’,” Sullivan said.
“I want to pride myself on defence, I’m not the biggest body but I always get in front of them and hopefully I’ll make my tackles.”
Ben Hunt and Corey Norman are still in the box seat to be the halves early in the season, with Adam Clune also in the picture.
However, Norman who is off contract at season’s end, is expected to cop a short ban for his part in a brawl in Cronulla last month.
For the moment Sullivan, who is one of the lightest players in the NRL at just over 80kg, is happy to bide his time.
“I’m just like a sponge, I’m just learning and I’d play front row if they let me,” Sullivan said.
“At the moment I’m just enjoying being a sponge, I love to learn and to learn off Cluney, Hunt and Normy, they’re the GOATs to me, I look up to them.
“I still feel like I have a lot to learn, you can’t really judge it off one game. I just take every week as it comes and hopefully I’ll play some good footy.”
The Dragons have another restricted trial against Parramatta on Thursday when marquee recruit Jack Bird is expected to play.
Griffin said that Bird should play about 20-25 minutes against the Eels.
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Originally published as KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021: Jayden Sullivan and childhood teammates lead Dragons’ Generation Next
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