RUGBY LEAGUE
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Dragons NYC coach Dean Young is confident his side is peaking at the right time for the preliminary final with Brisbane on Friday.
The Dragons looked out of sorts losing 40-10 to the Knights in round 26 with the minor premiership on the line.
While it may have looked an ominously poor performance just a week out from the finals, Young said it was all part of a perfectly-laid plan that saw them bounce back 30-22 against the Knights just a week later to progress straight through to Friday's grand final qualifier.
The young Dragons enjoyed four days off after a 58-18 win over the Broncos in round 25, a match that followed another tough road trip to Canberra.
While they knew it would leave the side flat before the final round match, Young was confident it would put them in the best position to reach the grand final.
"Me and Benny [joint head coach Ben Hornby] like to plan ahead and we like to stick to those plans, even if in the midst of those plans we think we might want to go in another direction," Young said.
"Even though we know we're not really good after a break - we had the bye during the year and got beat by Manly - we planned that we'd have four days off leading into the Newcastle game [in round 26].
"We knew it wouldn't help us in that game against Newcastle but we knew it would hold us in good stead for these games now.
"That was the plan and we stuck to it and got flogged up there but we managed to bounce back."
Young admitted it was no easy task trusting your intuition, but he and Hornby were confident they had the right formula.
"We train hard and play hard, we don't go well when we take it easy or have breaks, but at certain stages of the year you've got to have that," Young said.
"It's a long year, these kids are young - a lot of them could have played SG Ball [under 18s] this year - so playing 26 rounds is a grind in itself."
The Dragons' match with the Broncos will be shown live on Fox Sports 1 at 5pm.