ST George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor doesn’t talk a lot football with his old mate Nathan Brown but he knows better than most what his former Dragons teammate is going through at Newcastle this season.
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The Knights currently sit 16th on the ladder with just one win and a -329 points differential while Brown has been forced to use 33 players over the first 16 rounds of the season. It’s been a tough return to the NRL coaching arena for Brown with a side very much at the start of a rebuilding phase.
It’s something McGregor, who will go head to head with Brown this week, knows about after inheriting a club in salary cap strife when he first took the helm as head coach at Dragons at the end of 2014.
The club was forced to shed long-time star and Kiama product Brett Morris who linked with Canterbury while they were out-bid by Penrith for the services Shellharbour junior Trent Merrin who shifted to the foot of the mountains at the end of last season.
He had a few more stars at his disposal than Brown does this season but McGregor acknowledged how difficult a task rebuilding a club can be.
“It is tough and every coach has got a different opinion on how to do it,” McGregor said.
“The first year’s always the hardest in the system for a coach because you pretty well inherit your roster. Through the years if you stay there long enough you get [to build] your own roster.
“The NRL’s pretty ruthless. It’s the toughest competition in the world for our sport and he’s had his moments there with the change he's working through. It’s obviously a challenge for him week to week because he’s got a lot of young players there and a lot of older players moving [on].
“Nath’s working hard through that and doing what he needs to do at the moment. He’s been around long enough, he spent some time [at the Dragons] and in England so he knows what he’s doing.
“I don’t involved in it too much and when we talk we don’t talk about footy that much because it’s what we do every day. We talk more about life than we do footy.”
One of the more experienced players who has moved on is former co-captain Tariq Sims who was among the Dragons best in their last-start 20-10 win over Melbourne.
The conditions of his release stipulate that he is unavailable for selection this week but McGregor is banking on Tyson Frizell backing up from his outstanding Origin debut on Wednesday against a side the 11th placed Dragons are in no position to take lightly.
“It is disappointing to miss Tariq because he played a really vital part in our win last week,” McGregor said.
“We’ve got a pretty handy [replacement] one in Tyson Frizell possibly coming out of Origin, to take that spot.
“Newcastle are a very young side and they’re building for the future and when guys like that get the opportunity to play NRL they play with a lot of energy and a bit of excitement.
“We’ll certainly have to go up there and play well on Saturday.”