St George Illawarra utility Moses Mbye says the Dragons are firmly focused on returning to the winner's circle as speculation continues to swirl about coach Anthony Griffin's future.
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A big week of off-field attention continued on Tuesday when media reports emerged that Griffin had "played favourites" with the club's Queensland-born players this season.
Amidst all the talk, Mbye said the Dragons were hoping to block out noise and focus on their performances - starting this Friday night against the Sea Eagles.
"It's that time of year where if you're not performing very well, you're going to be under the pump. And the last couple of weeks, we haven't been playing good footy," he said.
"The pressure comes back on us as a playing group and as a club. It's a high pressure environment and we're going to be judged on our results. It popped its head up at the start of the season and we were a bit of pressure, but then we were able to string a few good performances together. But the last couple of weeks, we've played a pretty poor brand of footy and not got good results, so we're back here again.
"At the end of the day, we're going to be judged on how we turn up on Friday night. Everyone else can make up their own mind, but we want to keep as much as we can in-house as a playing group. I think that's going to be the best way to go about it as a playing group and focus on our footy and getting good results."
However, St George Illawarra's aspirations for victory have been dented by the loss of Moses Suli, who has suffered a high grade syndesmosis injury. Mbye will replace Suli in the centres, with Jayden Sullivan moving into the 14 jersey.
Tariq Sims will also return to the bench after serving his one-game suspension, with Aaron Woods dropping out of the 17-man squad.
Mbye said Suli would be sorely missed by his teammates on Friday night.
"He's been a big strike weapon for us this season," Mbye said. "He's got us out of a lot of trouble and causes the opposition a lot of grief, just purely because of his size and ability to play the game. So he's going to be a huge loss for us."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
