It's been a roller coaster ride through five years of the mega six-year $6.5 million deal Hunt inked with the Dragons ahead of the 2018 season, but there's no question this season has been his best on the personal front - albeit without a lift in his team's fortunes as the odds on a finals appearance lengthen.

Hunt finding top form has coincided with Griffin's arrival in Wollongong, while young-gun Talatau Amone has emerged as his regular halves partner this season. A one-year contract extension bringing Amone's deal with the club to the end of 2024 is merely awaiting the final stamp, but Hunt will become a free agent should he not ink an extension prior to November 1.

He'll have several suitors, with some perhaps looking to bring about an immediate shift for 2023 if Hunt and the Dragons could be convinced to forgo the final year of his current deal, with Griffin unsurprised at the interest in his captain's services.

"In the form he's in at the moment there'd be 15 clubs interested in him," Griffin said.

"That's not a real news story. Any club worth their salt would be looking at their cap and their halves position and seeing whether he could fit into their list. [Extension talks] are taking place in the background. The club's started that and I've had a chat to Ben and he's positive about staying here.

"[Amone's extension's] really close from what I hear, which is great. They've had a pretty good combination for most of the year, obviously Ben wasn't there during Origin and Junior [after] his first full season of NRL is only going to get better, so that's a real positive for us.

"To have Ben in that type of form, that's what a young playmaker needs [beside him], he needs an experienced half that can help him through those early parts of his career. It's an advantage both ways for us."

Hunt's future is a peripheral concern for Griffin who's under pressure as the Dragons look to stay in the finals hunt when they take on third-placed Cronulla at Shark Park on Saturday, with a loss likely to be the final blow to their arch-rivals top-eight hopes.

Griffin's side faded badly last week to go down 34-8 to North Queensland at Kogarah, with the match tightly poised through 60 minutes before the Cowboys finished with a three-try flurry in the final 14 minutes.

Read more: Return to Shark Park a long time coming for Bird

It leaves the Dragons four points off the top-eight pace with a poor for and against and likely needing to win all five of their remaining games to feature in the finals. It's a steep climb, but Griffin said his side can take some confidence out of the Cowboys defeat despite the scoreline.

"It was a funny game," he said. "Our general effort, particularly in the first half, was really good. We went toe-to-toe with the Cowboys for long periods and left some points out there. I just thought individually we weren't where we needed to be defensively in the second half.

"The scoreline got away from us but it's not something that's in our heads. That last 12 or 15 minutes, they were very good. Take nothing away from them, they're an exceptional side, but it was just a couple of individual things that we need to fix up.

"I thought the week before against Manly we did it perfectly for 80 minutes. We got everything we needed to get done right down to the last minute against them.

"Cronulla are Cronulla, it's a really tough away trip, but it's a game we've got to win so we're looking forward to the challenge."

Griffin saw enough in the first 60 minutes last week to go with an unchanged 17 heading into the Sharks clash, though fans may see a bit more of young gun Tyrell Sloan after he played just 12 minutes from the bench as the game lurched from a tight contest to a blow-out in a matter of minutes.

"We always had a number of plans there with the interchange," Griffin said.

"The best thing about [Sloan] is he covers us for a lot of positions in the back line from an injury point-of-view but then, tactically, we'll have a look at how the game pans out this week."

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