Dragons have come too far to fall now: Widdop

Spoilt for finals action in his early career with Melbourne, Widdop has just one finals appearance – a golden-point loss to the Bulldogs in 2015 – to show for his three seasons in Dragons colours.

He looked certain to add to it at the mid-point of the year, but the Dragons now sit on the verge of a stunning fade out of contention, after slipping out of the top eight for the first time this season.

The slide has come on the back of losses to last-placed Newcastle and the out-of-contention South Sydney in the past two weeks. 

Having led the Rabbitohs by 10 with five minutes to play, Widdop admits the last-gasp 22-20 defeat was the toughest loss to swallow. 

“With where we’re at, and with the season we’ve had so far, the last few weeks have been really, really disappointing,” Widdop said.

“We’ve worked so hard as a group to get where we are so to let it slip the last few weeks like we have, it really, really hurts. 

“On the weekend it was just one set, five minutes to go. We just can’t let that happen. Good sides don’t let it happen and as a team it was very, very had to take.”

Having looked odds-on for a top four finish, Widdop said the prospect of going without finals action for the third time in four years is hard to stomach.

“We play this game to play finals and win trophies, there’s no secret about that,” Widdop said.

“When you put in the hard work and the effort that each and every one of us have put in, to not get the [finals] reward would really hurt.

“It’s probably the most frustrating thing about it because, when we’re on, we’ve played some really good football this year. 

“We know we’ve got the players to beat any team on our day, we’ve shown that this year. To then have big lows like we’re having, to lose games like we’re losing, it’s the most frustrating thing about the season.”

The Dragons wobbles come as their top eight rivals make late runs at the finals. 

Penrith have won nine of their past 11 games while Canberra sit just one win adrift of the Dragons following an emphatic win over Cronulla on Saturday.

Two weeks after being touched up by the Dragons in Wollongong, Manly also returned to form with a come-from-behind victory over the second-placed Roosters.

It puts the Dragons in a fierce battle to scrape into the eight but Widdop insists his side is still in the mix just as much at the other contenders.

“You know how hard teams work to get there and, as a club, we’ve worked as hard as any team to put ourselves in a good position,” Widdop said.

“We know what’s happened the last few weeks but we’ve got to move on from that, we can’t dwell on it. We’ve got everything to play for.

“We’ve got four games left, four games to be won. It’s about mentally getting back on track and focused. We have to win these next few games and play well.”