Dragons: Ellis happy to stay off the tools

It's a frank admission from the 24-year-old, who was considering putting his carpentry apprenticeship to work back in Dubbo when he found himself stuck in NRL purgatory after the 2020 season came to a close.

After eight games in two seasons with Penrith, Ellis made a mid-year shift to the Dragons last season in an effort to get more regular first grade action.

He made a fair fist of it, but it was only when his former Penrith coach Anthony Griffin came calling at the end of November that he knew he'd be returning to Wollongong. Thankfully, it means he can leave the tool belt at home for now.

"At the moment I've nearly finished my carpentry trade but I have no idea what I'm doing, I'm shocking," Ellis said.

"The boys give me a bit of stick because they've busted their arses for five years doing an apprenticeship, I've done one in two years playing footy, and I've got no idea what I'm doing.

"Obviously the goal at the back end of the season was to sign on again but it took a bit longer than I expected so I ended up moving back home to Dubbo. I don't know if [carpentry's] what I wanted to do but, short-term, I probably would have fallen into that.

"You've got to plan for things but I tried not to give it too much energy because I didn't want it to happen. I sort of put all my eggs in the footy basket and thankfully it worked out."

While he's unlikely to lead with that in his resume post-football, he's hoping he won't need to use it until well into the future after signing a one-year extension, keeping him at the Dragons until the end of 2021.

Read more: Dragons ditching fat club for coffee club under Griffin

He's looking to turn that into a longer extension after re-uniting with Griffin, who gave him his NRL debut in 2018. It'll be a welcome boost for the Dragons if he can, with the likes of Tyson Frizell, James Graham and Korbin Sims departing.

The club has added Poasa Faamausili and Daniel Alvaro to it's top 30 and Ellis is turning his attention to the healthy competition for a spot in the 17 come round one.

"It went a bit quiet there for a bit but once I got the call from [Griffin] it was a very easy decision to make," he said.

"I was starting to put a few [non-football] plans in place but I wasn't taking them too seriously because I didn't want it to happen. Footy was the goal, I wasn't done with it.

"He gave me a call out of the blue and asked what I was doing. I hadn't heard what was going on and he said he had a spot there for me and he wanted me to take it and it was pretty good thing to here when I didn't think anything was going to come from it.

"I finished [2020] pretty well. I made the move to play games and I achieved that goal, obviously that doesn't mean anything now with the new coaches and the way the club's heading, so I'm just trying to bust my bum now and trying and lock down that spot in the 17."