Ben Hunt confident as St George Illawarra Dragons NRL debut approaches

A lengthy off-season of discussion surrounding the Dragons key signings and the pressure they will face finally comes to an end on Thursday night when St George Illawarra face Brisbane at Jubilee Oval.

The halfback is looking forward to putting on the Red V and letting his play on the field do the talking. 

“It’s been a long time coming now, waiting for that game,” Hunt said. “Just waiting for that first whistle, I know there’s going to be some nerves and excitement before it, but once that first whistle goes it’s all on and ready to go.”

The Dragons enter the game having had mixed trial success, with a sluggish 24-18 win over Hull FC followed by a four-point loss to the Rabbitohs in last week’s Charity Shield.

“We’ve played two trials and I don’t think we’ve been anywhere close to where we can get to so far. I think there’s a lot of improvement we’re going to make during the year and I’m pretty keen we can push to the finals.

“I think it should happen pretty quickly though. I can’t be going out taking my time getting into the game against the Broncos. It’s a game we want to win and we’ll be going right from the opening whistle, and I need to be part of that.”

The team’s progress from the first trial to the second was clear, with the Dragons delivering a much improved effort in Mudgee, despite the final scoreline.

“I thought we were a bit off the pace in the first trial and I know we lost the second trial, but I think we improved a hell of a lot to where we were in the first game.

“Defensively, we need to clean up a few things if we want to be a good team.”

The loss to the Rabbitohs came after dummy half Damien Cook ran rampant through the middle of the field and Hunt is confident the issue will be addressed come kick off on Thursday night.

“We’re working on them, we had a bit of work on them this morning [Friday] and we’re going to do a bit more work during the week.

“There’s always going to be issues throughout the year, you get stuck into them at training trying to fix them up.”

While Hunt has been lauded as the missing piece in the Dragons premiership puzzle, the team’s fortunes last season often hinged on the performance of the forwards. It will be vital for the forwards to dominate upfront to provide Hunt and Gareth Widdop with a solid foundation to build off in 2018.

“We have spoken about that,” Forward Leeson Ah Mau said. “If we’re not doing our job in the middle, it’s going to be hard for the halves to play. 

“We’ve really made a focus on laying that platform for Gaz [Gareth Widdop] and Benny to do their stuff.”

The arrival of former Bulldogs captain James Graham should fortify the St George Illawarra forward pack and Hunt feels the England international’s impact on the team has been clear both on and off the field.

“The biggest thing James brings is just his leadership,” Hunt said. “I think everyone says that about him, the way he goes about his work, he does all the little things.

“He’s not a huge talker, he just leads by example. He’s that type of player that you really want in your team and want to play for.”