DRAGONS captain Ben Creagh has likened new coach Paul McGregor’s clean out of the club to that carried out by premiership-winning coach Wayne Bennett on his arrival in Wollongong in 2009.
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The Dragons were the first club to return to training ahead of the 2015 season on Monday less than a week after Test winger Brett Morris announced his sensational departure to link with brother Josh at the Bulldogs next year.
Ironically Josh was one of the casualties when Bennett put a broom through the Dragons a year before delivering the joint-venture it’s first premiership in 2010.
Centre Gerard Beale, currently in camp with the New Zealand Four Nations squad, is expected to follow Morris out the door while forwards Bronson Harrison and Jack Stockwell have also been released with the latter expected to link with Newcastle next year.
New signings Eto Nabuli, George Rose, Heath L’Estrange and former Gundagai abottoir worker Rulon Nutira all ran in their first field session with the club on Wednesday.
Creagh said high turnover of players is inevitable as a new coach looks to put his stamp on the roster.
‘‘When Browny [Nathan Brown] left us Wayne did let a lot of players go,’’ Creagh said.
‘‘Guys like Jason Ryles and Josh Morris as well. They were two quality players and Wayne made the decision before he came to let them go so I have seen it before.
‘‘It’s not all end of the world stuff. A new coach has come in and taken over and he wants his team.’’
Dragons CEO Peter Doust has insisted that the club’s decision to release Morris was not related to the club’s well publicised salary cap issues and Creagh laughed off suggestions that the high player turnover amounted to any crisis.
‘‘I don’t think there’s any crisis, things are fine,’’ Creagh said.
‘‘We’ve seen it at many other clubs over a long long time. [New coaches] come in they want to make changes. That’s all that’s happened in this case.’’
Creagh admitted it was sad to see Morris leave the club after speaking to him at length as he weighed up his decision.
‘‘I spoke to him a fair bit, I’m pretty close mates with Brett,’’ Creagh said.
‘‘I tried to talk to him about staying but he was pretty adamant.
‘‘He tried to get Josh here when he was off contract a year or two ago because he wanted to finish his career with him and he was pretty adamant he wanted to finish his career at the Bulldogs with him.
‘‘It’s very sad to see him go but in the end he made a decision based on wanting to finish his career with his brother and financial reasons as well.
‘‘You can’t really hold it against him. I don’t and the other players don’t either.’’