HE'S made no secret of the fact fullback is not his preferred position, but Dragons half Corey Norman admits he couldn't really argue when coach Paul McGregor handed him the No. 1.
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It came after he and regular halves partner Ben Hunt wore the brunt of criticism for a dismal 18-0 loss to the Warriors in round three, with McGregor responding by shifting Norman to the back.
It had little impact in an equally disappointing 22-2 loss the Bulldogs, prompting another reshuffle against the Sharks on Sunday, with Norman back in the halves and Hunt shifting to the bench in the club's first victory of the season.
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The fullback-five-eighth merry go round has been a frustrating trend throughout the 29-year-old's career but he admits, on form, he literally just had to wear it.
"To be honest it was probably warranted," Norman said.
"I haven't been playing the best football and I can accept [shifting] when I'm not playing well. You're going to see [criticism] around a bit on social media and what not and I think it was warranted.
"I just copped it on the chin and went with it. There was a bit of pressure there but I was back in the halves this week and it was good to get a win. We really needed to lift and I think we did.
"We just controlled the football a lot better. In the second half we came out, we were kicking early into the corners. In previous weeks we were probably trying to shift our way out of trouble and making mistakes.
"We just weren't building pressure but I thought we did a really good job of that and put 30 points on. We didn't attack too flashy, it was just building pressure."
McGregor stuck with the same formula in naming his side for Saturday's trip to Brisbane to take on the Titans, listing Norman in the number six jumper with Ben Hunt in No. 14 in an unchanged 17.
There may yet be some changes by kickoff, with young-guns Jason Saab, Tristan Sailor and Jackson Ford named alongside Korbin Sims in an extended 21-man squad.
Mikaele Ravalawa appears the man most under pressure after making three key errors despite finishing with two tries against the Sharks, with Saab looming for a maiden start should McGregor decide to make a change.
Hunt scored a try and laid on another from the interchange against the Sharks, while Matt Dufty produced arguably his best NRL performance in a rejigged spine.
Norman said Hunt's shift brought a different dynamic to the spine that they're keen to build on after breaking their 2020 drought.
"It was really good, Benny's played Origin at hooker so we knew him coming on there wasn't going to be an issue," Norman said.
"I thought he was really good getting out for those early kicks and just a bit of deception around the ruck. I think it was exactly the way we needed to win so we need to get a little roll on now.
"We had three or four errors in a row but we turned them around and we went down there and scored. It put a bit of belief in the squad and it's exactly what we needed.
"It's a good stepping stone forward, we've got the Titans this week and we've just got to build from what we did on the weekend, keep building pressure, have a bit more respect for the ball and just finish our sets where we want to finish them, not giving the opposition cheap football.
"We don't want to go back into boring football but we've just got to build on what we did."