Dragons star Talatau Amone not going anywhere despite long-term stand-down

Amone was stood down under the NRL's no fault policy following his first court appearance in Wollongong last week over an alleged hammer attack on a tradie near his Warrawong home in November.

He's yet to enter a plea to charges of damaging property and intimidation reckless grievous bodily harm in company, though his legal indicated he intends to fight the charges.

The seriousness of the latter charge saw the automatic implementation of the no fault policy that forbids a player from playing but allows them to continue training and be paid their full salary.

Read more: Amone hit with NRL no-fault sanction

It's not a new challenge for the club, with lock Jack de Belin spending two and half years out of the game facing sexual assault charges. It proved an ongoing distraction amid poor on-field fortunes and gave rise to reports of division within the playing group.

The saga largely preceded Griffin's coaching tenure, but he doesn't believe Amone's presence will cause any disruption despite preparing to be without the Tongan International long-term.

"At the moment he's training full-time with us and we don't find that divisive or a disruption," Griffin said.

"If it gets to a point where his mind's somewhere else and, for his sake and our sake we need to do something else, we'll have a chat to him about that but at the moment it's all going OK.

"It's something we didn't want to happen for the club, and obviously for him personally, but we've got no control over the legal system. We'll move on and support Junior (Amone) all the way.

"It's one of those things that are normally long-term. Hopefully, for his sake, it gets sorted out quicker but, from our point-of-view, we're taking a long-term view of it.

"It happened before Christmas so it's given us a chance since Christmas to move on and get ourselves prepared without him."

Fellow young-gun Jayden Sullivan has figured heavily in those plans, with the 21-year-old remaining odds-on to partner skipper Ben Hunt come the Dragons season-opener despite picking up an untimely hamstring strain.

While it's likely to keep him out of the club's first trial outing against St Helens in a fortnight, the Charity Shield clash with the Rabbitohs looms as a likely return date.

Beyond that, Jack Bird remains an option in the halves while the club may also look to the market should it be able to offload part or all of Amone's salary off the cap.

"[Sullivan's] getting close to being at full strength and full speed again so, if not St Helens, I'd say [he'll be back for] Mudgee against the Rabbitohs," Griffin said.

"Jack Bird's trained a little bit at five-eighth and we've got capacity within our list and our cap to bring someone else in to replace Junior if we think that's going to be really long-term as well."

Elsewhere in the spine, previously wantaway young-gun Tyrell Sloan is all but certain to get the nod at No. 1 after confirmation Cody Ramsey will miss the entire season with illness.

Read more: Local product Blake Lawrie signs extension with St George Illawarra

Griffin was unsure if the nature of Ramsey's unavailability would open the possibility of salary cap relief, but he was happy to endorse Sloan's claim to the custodian role.

"I'm not too sure with that [salary cap] stuff, it's something Ryan [Webb] and Ben [Haran] will look after but, at this stage, we're happy from the fullback point-of-view to give Sloany every chance and he'll get every chance," Griffin said.

"He's had a really good off-season and he's doing really well. Treigh Stewart's done a good job for us as well, and we've still got capacity to go to the market, but I think Sloany's doing a really good job for us at the moment."

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