ST GEORGE Illawarra veteran Jason Nightingale believes a concerted effort to ease the leadership burden on Gareth Widdop is behind his skipper’s flying start to the 2017 season.
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Widdop endured a tough initiation as captain of arguably the most famous club in rugby league last season, wearing the brunt of criticism for his side’s lacklustre attack.
It led to reports that Ben Hunt’s impending arrival in 2018 could see him squeezed out of the club just a year after stepping into the captaincy role, but the 28-year- has provided a stinging rebuke to his critics over the opening five rounds.
He is currently the league’s leading scorer with 54 points and laid on four tries in a five-star performance against the Tigers on Sunday. With the likes of Brisbane, Canterbury, and now Melbourne, on the lookout for a quality half, the Dragons may well have a fight on their hands to keep the English International.
Nightingale – who was named as Josh Dugan’s fullback replacement on Tuesday – was a major beneficiary of Widdop’s return to form with a hat-trick in the win over the Tigers, and said the club’s new leadership group has sought to unburden their skipper.
“We didn’t really have a strong leadership structure last year and Gareth had to carry a lot of that burden himself in his first year as captain,” Nightingale said.
“The hardest part of being captain is having to carry some of the baggage from other people and Gareth did have to carry that stuff.
“We had Benny Creagh, who is obviously a great mentor and leader, but he didn’t play a lot and then Benji [Marshall] was injured for the start of the year.
“The way it’s set up this year we’ve got a bigger group, the dynamic is spread across a wider range of players and that’s a credit to the open-mindedness Mary [coach Paul McGregor] and his staff have had in their approach.
“It lets Gareth focus a little bit more on the things he’s good at which is running the footy and playing with confidence. When you aren’t inhibited by other things that happen off the field it’s easier to play your natural game so the more help that everyone around him can give him the better he’s going to be.”
The club’s new leadership brains trust also includes Tyson Frizell, Josh Dugan, Tariq Sims, Jack de Belin and Russell Packer, with Packer saying the player driven approach has been a big factor his side’s dramatic form reversal this season.
“I think the player involvement, through the whole preseason and into the season, has been a lot bigger than last year and that’s giving ownership to us as a playing group,” Packer said.
“It left a bit of a void there with Ben retiring and Benji moving on. When you’ve been selected by your peers and teammates to be a leader, it brings something more out of you because you know they’ve chosen you for a reason.
“Credit to Mary, it’s hard to learn on the job but he’s done a great job learning from mistakes, as we all have, and implementing changes. There’s been a lot of input both ways and I think that dynamic has been great.
“We’ve seen the strength of a team and what it can be when you have the right kind of players in that leadership group sending the same messages in terms of what standards we want to have here at the Dragons.”