IT'S the oldest cliche in rugby league, but Dragons coach Paul McGregor is literally taking a "one week at a time" approach to the reshuffle that sparked his side's first win of the season on Sunday.
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After a week of turmoil in which he only narrowly avoided the axe, McGregor bit the bullet and shifted under-fire halfback Ben Hunt to the bench utility role in which he's excelled at rep level.
It saw Corey Norman shift back to the halves and gave Matt Dufty the start at fullback, with the diminutive No. 1 laying on a try and scoring another in a 30-16 win over arch rivals Cronulla.
Hunt did the same either side of halftime after being injected at dummy-half midway through the opening stanza, crossing for a crucial four-pointer less than a minute before the break.
It's unlikely to change ahead of next week's clash with the Titans, but McGregor was coy on whether it was a permanent shift.
"It doesn't mean anything [long-term], it means it's what was best this week," McGregor said.
"I wasn't happy with the way we've been playing and I just wanted the get the right combinations, reward people playing better and make change whenever I think it'll benefit the team.
"It wasn't [an easy call] but he's a great person Benny and he understood the reasoning behind it. We had a good conversation before we announced that side and it was more about him just relaxing a little bit and going out and enjoying his footy.
"He seems to do that well at nine and it's going to benefit the side as well. I think the way the game is, having two nines in your side's pretty important.
"He's played Origin [at] hooker, he's a back-up Australian hooker but we've got a good one in Cam McInnes as well.
"It's [about] what the team needs now and that's the decision we make week to week."
Hunt's try on halftime was a key moment, as was his combining with McInnes for the 62nd minute try that all but sealed the win.
McGregor said using McInnes at the back of the scrum remains an option going forward, particularly after the club made the decision to release Issac Luke to Brisbane this week.
"Cam's been training in that position through preseason because we had Issac Luke as the interchange hooker," McGregor said.
"He's not foreign to the position training-wise but he hasn't played much football at 13. He runs hard, he defended well, he's fit and he competes on every play.
"Cam's just a competitor and I think he'll be more comfortable with time playing in that position."
It was a relieving win. but it's unlikely to fully release the pressure valve on the coach and club, with next weekend's clash with the Titans followed by the Roosters and Raiders back to back.
McGregor isn't expecting the noise to die down but says his focus remains in-house.
"[Pressure's] never going away, it's there," McGregor said.
"I try to shield my players away from that stuff but it's hard to hide from it...but I've got good self-awareness, I know where my control starts and finishes.
"The biggest thing for us was improving our game because we're not happy with how we've been playing.
"We improved today, do we need to improve more - absolutely because, as a club, we're not happy where we are."