The Steve Price reshuffle continues to take effect barely a week out from the Dragons’ season opener in Newcastle, with second-rower Jake Marketo yesterday hinting at a potential shift to the centres.
Full coverage of the DragonsThe 23-year-old played the back end of Saturday’s 18-12 Charity Shield win over the Rabbitohs in the centres, spending much of his 29 minutes in place of Matt Cooper.Despite playing five NRL games entirely in the forwards, Marketo said he would be happy with a permanent move to the backline.‘‘I wouldn’t mind playing there,’’ he said.‘‘The week before the [Charity Shield], Pricey told me I’d be playing a bit wider. I played back row and then I moved into the centre a little bit, just because Coops was feeling a bit crook.‘‘Pricey hasn’t really said anything to me; he just kind of put me in that spot. I’d play wing to get into the side. It was a good challenge.’’Beau Scott at present leads the charge for Price’s vacant right centre position, ahead of Chase Stanley and Daniel Vidot. Marketo admits the positional hierarchy doesn’t favour his inexperience, but has solid hopes of donning the red and white this year.‘‘[My goal is] probably to play 10-plus games but that comes with working really hard and training with the boys and earning their respect and confidence,’’ he said.‘‘This year I’ve bulked up and pulled my head in a bit. I’ve put on a couple of kilos and lost a bit of body fat.‘‘It would suit me [at centre] - I’ve just got to keep working on my diet.’’Changes to the cornerstone pairing in the Dragons’ attack, Jamie Soward and Ben Hornby, are being touted as the biggest improvement under Price.Dragons winger Brett Morris believes the side’s attack will not have the same predictability as in previous years, even attributing his relatively low 2011 scoring rate to the fact opposition teams were accustomed to Wayne Bennett’s dominant left side.‘‘I think it will be good for us. Obviously in the last couple of years, we’ve had them set on one side so I think now with them moving both sides of the field, it helps with us being a bit more unpredictable,’’ Morris said.‘‘Obviously teams started working out the style that we play. We’ll just have to come up with some new ways.‘‘It helps having different players there from time to time for different plays. You saw on the weekend it worked quite well.‘‘We’ll definitely be looking at some new things we can be trying out on the training paddock and trying to get them out on the field.’’Meanwhile, Rabbitohs second-rower Eddy Pettybourne has entered an early guilty plea from his careless high tackle charge against Chase Stanley, and will be available for round one.
