The Dragons will play a full home and away season against all seven of the other sides to finish in top eight last season, with eight matches against top four sides.

They will start the season with a trip to Melbourne and effectively spend eight of the first nine rounds on the road with ‘home’ games coming against the Rabbitohs at the SCG in round three and and the Roosters at Allianz Stadium in round nine.

They will play just one game - an Easter Sunday blockbuster against Penrith at WIN Stadium in round 4 - at either of their traditional homes in that period.

They’ll also spend three weeks on the road in Queensland between rounds five and seven with consecutive games against grand finalists North Queensland and Brisbane ahead of a clash with the Titans on the Gold Coast.

Roosters chief executive Brian Canavan and Manly coach Trent Barrett have both been critical of their clubs’ respective draws since it’s release last week.

 The NRL Players’ Association has also expressed concerns over play burnout with the draw being spread over five days with no reduction in short turnarounds.

The Dragons have the most reason to feel hard done by but Creagh said his side won’t be looking for excuses in the draw.

‘‘Every club can look at the draw and say they’ve been dealt an unfair set of cards here or there at different stages of the season,’’ Creagh said.

‘‘That’s just how it is. 

‘‘From my point of view there’s no point whingeing about it or complaining about it.

‘‘It’s there it’s set in stone now and we’ve just got to deal with it and worry about our footy for next year.’’

The Dragons will face all of last year’s top four sides in the opening nine rounds but Creagh said his side will take a lot of confidence out the wins they managed over the league’s top contenders during the 2015 season.

‘‘There was that middle period of the season where we fell down a little bit but I think when we had those seven wins in a row we put in some of our best performances against the real quality sides,” Creagh said.

‘‘You definitely get a bit of confidence from that.

‘‘There were a lot of years prior to the 2015 season where we really struggled against the top four to six sides in the competition.

‘‘We just couldn’t compete with them but I think last year we showed we can compete with those sides and beat those sides.’’

Creagh said that confidence is already evident since the squad returned for preseason three weeks ago.

‘‘There was a little bit of the unknown heading into last preseason  but we’ve come back this time knowing what’s coming,” he said.

‘‘A lot of guys are at the stage in their careers where they want rep jumpers, they want to play at the highest level. That’s only going to help them and the club as we strive to be a top eight side.”