Supporters of the St George Illawarra Dragons should be heralding a new era as a new NRL season approaches under incoming coach Anthony Griffin.

Yet instead the club is shrouded in a dark and persistent mist which has clouded its every move for a long time now.

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There has been plenty of change at the club to try to address the perceived problems and the recent diabolical history. The only thing that has survived relatively unscathed is the club's board.

That board now is firmly in the sights of supporters. The discontent is palpable. Yet winning solves all ills.

The best thing the Dragons' administration can hope for is a winning start to the season to relieve the pressure valve set to almost bursting after a horrid season last year and tumultuous off-season.

If the Dragons start the season 10-0, all the problems go away. If that equation is flipped, then what next?

When you've changed the coaching group and radically changed the playing group, what is left?

Someone or something has to take responsibility.

Surely the Cameron McInnes decision in the off-season has clearly illustrated a club at odds with itself.

To allow a much-loved servant and captain of the club to sign a deal with the arch-rivals up the road was gob-smackingly bad.

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Then came the Israel Folau chase, which this masthead campaigned strongly against. Thankfully common sense prevailed, but not without damage being done to the Dragons' brand on the way through.

Then, just to make matters worse, the club put in a woeful showing in the Charity Shield, falling to South Sydney 48-16.

If the supporters hadn't been baying for blood before then, they certainly were after.

On Sunday, the Dragons will start what we all hope will be the road to redemption as St George Illawarra take on Cronulla at Jubilee Stadium.

If they don't, it will be the Dragons' supporters who are the ones breathing fire.

Get your 12-page NRL Guide complete with club-by-club previews, Dragons team poster and tipping chart inside your printed edition of the Illawarra Mercury on Thursday, March 11

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