The Dragons will be looking to fill the hole left by departing superstar Brett Morris with some bargain buys after announcing the signing of former hotel porter Eto Nabuli and home-grown talent Yaw-Kiti Glymin on Monday.
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Nabuli was discovered carrying suitcases by NRL greats Andrew Johns and Brad Fitler while on an ambassadorial trip to Fiji in 2012.
It was Fitler who first announced his move to the Dragons during this year’s grand final before the club made it official on Monday.
Signed by the Panthers for the 2103 season Nabuli was the NSW Cup’s leading try-scorer with 30 tries playing for the Windsor Wolves in his debut season in rugby league.
The hot form of Josh Mansour and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak again kept Nabuli out of the top grade in 2014 prompting the Fijian International to reject advances from Super Rugby franchise the Western Force to ink a one-year deal with the Dragons.
He will be in the running to replace Morris after winning the NSW Cup premiership with Penrith playing on the left wing this year.
Dragons coach Paul McGregor said the 26-year-old said Nabuli had caught the club’s attention with more than 50 tries in two seasons in the NSW Cup.
“Eto is a young and exciting talent who will have the opportunity this pre-season to continue his development here at the Dragons,” McGregor said.
‘He’s a six-foot-six giant who can out-leap most people because of his height.
‘‘He’s very athletic and he has very good hands. He’s only known the game two years and over that two years he’s scored 50-plus tries in the NSW Cup which is no mean feat.
‘‘It’ll be a really good tough 10 weeks for him with education to get him ready to play first grade.’’
Local junior Yaw Kiti Glymin is also in the running to replace Morris after agreeing to one-year contract extension.
‘‘Kiti Glymin’s been at the club for a while and he had a really good season in the NSW Cup,’’ McGregor said.
‘‘He unfortunately got injured towards the end of year and didn’t get to play that [NSW Cup] finals series but I’m expecting him to grow this year again.
‘‘His athleticism is untouched, he’s just got to learn the game a little bit more and with the right training and the right opportunity he can do that.’’
The Dragons - who were the first NRL team to return to training ahead of the 2015 season on Monday - also announced that Nathan Green has also signed a one-year extension.
Green came through the Dragons system as an outside back but skippered the Cutters for the bulk of the NSW Cup season after switching from the centres to the back row.
He’ll be looking to build on his 17 top-grade appearances for the club since debuting in 2012.
