Dragons out to banish ghosts of 2017

The 2015 Dragons were competition leaders after 12 rounds and sat in the top four until round 17, but won just three of their final 14 games to just scrape into the finals.

Their limp to the 2017 finish line was even more disappointing, missing the finals altogether despite leading the competition after seven rounds.

They sat in the top four as late as round 13 before dropping eight of their last 12 games, including the infamous round-26 meltdown against Canterbury that was the final nail in their finals coffin.

McGregor admitted the ghosts of last season will linger, but he’s confident his squad now has the maturity to maintain the standards they’ve set for a full 26 rounds. 

‘‘It’s a different group, the balance of our squad is much improved,’’ McGregor said.

“The kids, our youth, are in their second and third year after their debut. They’ve had a couple of tough preseasons now so the depth of our squad is deeper.

“We’ve brought in a halfback [Ben Hunt] and an experienced front-rower [James Graham].

“If you watch Gareth [Widdop] play, the No. 7 he’s got next to him has really freed him to be a major threat on both sides of the park.

“Expectations are a little higher when you have two world-class halves and they haven’t let anyone down thus far and I’m sure they won’t go out to.

“Then you’ve got an experienced player like James and how good he is in all the effort areas of the game.”

While the addition of Hunt and Graham has undoubtedly boosted the club’s arsenal, McGregor believes his returnees have gone up a level, particularly up front.

“I think they’ve been very good for the last two years,” McGregor said.

“Last year they played really well, I think we probably just had a bit too much youth at different times.

“Cam McInnes got one of our awards at the end of the year, Paul Vaughan got and award at the end of the year.

“Jack de Belin was 18th man for NSW, Tyson played for NSW. Leeson’s been a good player at the club for many a year.

“They’re all around the age of 26 to 28 which is a good age to play footy as a middle so they’re definitely laying a good foundation for [the halves].”