NRL 2021: St. George-Illawarra Dragons Season Review

The St. George-Illawarra Dragons kicked off the 2021 NRL season with a bang but it wasn’t long before they started to drop back to the pack and finish 11th on the ladder.

Here’s your St. George-Illawarra Dragons Season Review for 2021:

• The Season In Brief: Stats and Summary
• Takeaways From 2021
  • Things I Liked: Ben Hunt, Ravalawa + Lomax, Sloan > Dufty
  • 3-2-1: Jack Bird, Generation Next, Jack de Belin
  • Summer Notepad: Moses Mbye
• Preseason Prediction Throwback
• Way Too Early Thoughts On 2022

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The Season In Brief

We’re summing up the NRL season in a few words before getting into the nitty-gritty and breaking down some of the key moments in 2021.

By The Numbers

The numbers provide a fairly accurate reflection of the St. George-Illawarra Dragons 2021 NRL season. They finished up 11th in both attack (19.8 points per game) and defence (25.7 points conceded per game) to finish 11th on the ladder. The Dragons did enough with the ball to threaten the opposition – when they had it. With an NRL-low 25 forced dropouts and a 15th-ranked yardage game averaging just 1,539 running metres per game, the Dragons performed poorly in the possession areas which became particularly important under the 2021 rules.

Copy: Bar Chart
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The Season In 200 Words

Four wins from five games was as good a start as any for new coach Anthony Griffin. He immediately justified the recruitment of otherwise unwanted talent in the form of Andrew McCullough, Josh McGuire, Jack Bird and Trent Merrin and the Red V army forgot about the impending departure of club favourite Cameron McInnes.

Then the wheels fell off.

It didn’t take long for opposition teams to figure out how to defend the Dragons. With Ben Hunt either on the sidelines or under huge pressure by opposition defenders as the lead playmaker, the Dragons struggled in attack. If Hunt wasn’t creating himself, the Dragons looked directionless and disorganized and, for the most part, failed to build pressure with the ball.

Their 11.4 average errors per game (4th most) is an accurate reflection of the way the backline linked up for most of the season – it didn’t. Too often we were left with a premeditated Matt Dufty cut-out pass on the last, and regular readers will know how we at RLW feel about that one.

The BBQ-gate was the story of the season and cruelled any chance – however unlikely – St George had of playing finals footy in 2021.

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Takeaways From 2021

Things I Liked

Jason picks out a few moments, matches or players that he liked most throughout the 2021 NRL season.

Ben Hunt

Watching Ben Hunt recapture his form is one of the highlights of not only the Red V season, but the NRL season as a whole. An easy target for scrutiny thanks to one low-light reel moment on the biggest stage and one of the biggest contracts in the competition, Hunt has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons in recent years. Strangely, he didn’t receive too much credit for an impressive 2021 campaign.

Hunt’s health was arguably St. George-Illawarra’s main issue this season. He managed only 15 games but scored five tries, handed out 13 try assists, seven line-break assists, rolled in six forced dropouts and ran for a career-high 102 running metres per game. Most notably, the Dragons won six of the 15 games he played and only two of the nine he missed.

It didn’t take long for Hunt to start looking his best. “Just run the ball” is the most overused trope in rugby league, but that is what he did to score in Round 2.

The show-and-go mixed with the little right-foot step has always been a staple of Hunt playing well and he certainly looked a lot more willing to take the line on this year. His career-high 102 running metres is one thing but it’s his NRL-high 8.9 line engagements per game that saw him have such an impact on the Dragons attack. Particularly early in the season before Jack de Belin started to pick up some of the duties in the middle, the Dragons really lacked ballplaying and Hunt shouldered a lot of the load.

Only Nathan Cleary (70.5) and Mitchell Pearce (63.3) touched the ball more times per game than Hunt’s 61.1 touches which allowed the halfback to leave his fingerprints on plenty of positive attacking actions.

This one here in Round 13 is a prime example of how Hunt created points without being recognised with the try or try assist.

Andrew McCullough does a good job of holding up the A defender which allows Hunt to zero in on Tyson Gamble. By engaging Gamble, Hunt forces the Broncos two-in defender to respond to what is now a three v two situation out wide. Getting deep into the line, Hunt sees Jesse Arthars bounce off his left foot to slide so plays short. Wrong-footed and only able to muster a legs tackle, Arthars can’t wrap up the ball and Brayden Williame ends up across the line.

Hunt’s elite ball playing opens up opportunities for his running game. When both are working in concert on any given week, he’s one of the best #7’s in the NRL.

It was good to see him play some solid football in 2021. His form will be crucial to the Dragons’ fortunes next season.

Mikaele Ravalawa + Zac Lomax

Like Hunt, health became a factor here in 2021.

Appearing in only 12 games all season, the Dragons played without one of the best centres in the NRL in Zac Lomax. Excellent defensively and threatening to develop a deadly combination with Mikaele Ravalawa on the right edge, we need to see these two link up for 18+ games next season.

We saw some good things out of the duo in 2021 but the Dragons lack elite attacking talent compared to the top teams overall. These two, however, can close that gap.

Sloan > Dufty

Simultaneously in the “Dufty is a bad fullback and not first-grade quality” and “what are the Dragons doing letting Dufty go?” camps, the emergence of Tyrell Sloan helped to confirm the first point and answer the second.

Dufty produced some highlight-reel plays with the ball but few were through consistent and repeatable actions. It didn’t take long for his cutout pass on the edge to be picked off and his inability to be effective in yardage or defence saw him end most matches as a net-negative.

Sloan, on the other hand, is active across the field. He averaged 15.4 supports per game throughout his five matches – easily the most in the NRL (min. 5 matches) with Victor Radley second with 10.8 per game (Dufty doesn’t feature in the Top 50 on NRL.com so averaged fewer than 5.1 per game). Putting himself in positions to be effective, he scored six tries, most of which came through nothing more than effort and awareness.

Those are notable traits in a fullback at only 19-years old. So too is his superior defence to the man he’s replacing.

To see a young player excelling in the smaller areas of fullback play and not simply sitting back and waiting to strike is very, very encouraging.

Sloan still has a lot of work to do. Teams will pick on him next season and he was caught out of position by better kickers in the competition, but it is obvious now why the Dragons were prepared to let Dufty walk. They have their fullback of the future.

~ Jason

3-2-1

True rugby league fans will know there’s nothing more legitimate than the Dally M’s 3-2-1 voting system…With that in mind, Oscar picks out three elements from the 2021 season that deserve a mention.

3 – Jack Bird

If you’re still not sure where Jack Bird’s best position is, welcome to the club. 

St George fans will surely feel that Bird has repaid the faith Anthony Griffin showed in signing him after a wretched run with injuries. He finished the 2021 season as one of the Dragons best and most consistent performers despite constantly moving between centre, backrow, halfback and fullback in his first year at the club. Wherever he lined up, Bird could be relied on to produce high-quality and high-energy involvements on both sides of the ball. 

First things first, Bird is a nightmare to tackle. His 83 tackle busts from 22 games ranks him 17th in the competition, and that’s all while moving between positions in a decidedly average attacking side. The Dragons’ inability to consistently create positive attacking involvements for their key players was a sore point of their 2021 season and Bird often took it upon himself to create something when his teammates wouldn’t (or couldn’t). 

Actions like this against the Roosters in Round 23 typified Bird’s involvement in this Dragons team in 2021. 

His eagerness to compete on every play has always been a trademark of Bird’s game and it eventuated in a length of the field try for the Dragons here. He shows nice skills to pluck a Roosters’ attacking kick out of the air and immediately races to take the quick tap. The threat Bird poses as a runner sees two Roosters defenders gravitate towards him and a deft pass to Zac Lomax catches them napping. It’s not the sort of repeatable action you’d ever want to rely on but in a side that struggled for points at times this season (11th best – 19.8 avg) Bird’s involvements were usually the most likely. 

In defence Bird has always been subject to some criticism, but I’m keeping the faith. 

Statistically speaking his numbers are fair. FoxSports Lab has Bird down for 15 try-causes, 13 linebreak-causes and 57 missed tackles across 22 games this season. For reference, Grand Finalist and State of Origin centre Dane Gagai had 12 try-causes, 15 linebreak-causes and 51 missed tackles from just one more game in 2021. He’s prone to a poor read every now and then but Bird is almost always a net-positive across 80 minutes and if given a chance to cement a spot in the centres I expect that decision making to improve. 

In Lomax the Dragons have one centre who is defensively elite and can produce repeatable actions in attack. Lomax’s skip to the outside and flick-pass offload to his winger is an action St George should be going back to until it stops working. In Bird the Dragons have a very different prospect on the other edge (if that’s where Griffin keeps him). He’s a strike attacking centre that needs nothing more than early ball and room to move, and due to his size he’s also an effective decoy runner in set backline shifts. 

The recent signing of Moses Suli suggests we might see Bird playing somewhere else in the lineup next season but whether it’s at centre, fullback or in the backrow, Bird will be one of St George’s busiest and best again in 2022. 

2 – Generation Next (Talatau Amone, Jayden Sullivan & Tyrell Sloan)

As enjoyable as the ‘Moneyball’ rhetoric is surrounding St George-Illawarra at the moment, smart judges will tell you there is plenty of talent within the club already. Head coach Anthony Griffin invested heavily in established, experienced players to bolster his roster in 2021 and has recruited astutely again heading into next season, but it is the development of some of the Dragons’ generation-next that I’m most looking forward to seeing in 2022. 

Not enough predicted team lists have included Talatau Amone, Jayden Sullivan or Tyrell Sloan in the Dragons’ lineup for Round 1 of next year. It’s unlikely we’ll see all three of them on the field together to begin the year but the way they combined in the back end of 2021 suggests it’s only a matter of time before we do. 

Actions like this against the Cowboys in Round 24 are the product of hours spent training and playing together in the junior grades, and it was arguably some of the best footy St George produced in attack all season. 

Amone looks really good taking the ball into the line and Sloan appears to have wonderful timing and speed in the way he pops up in support. They both have the vision to realise North Queensland are slow from marker back on the inside and both players react in unison when the hole presents itself. Sullivan does a wonderful job backing up on the inside and puts a deft kick in for Zac Lomax to dive on and score – great footy. 

Not to be outdone by his hooker, Amone linked up again with Sloan for another trick shot as the halftime siren sounded. 

This one had it all. Amone has the vision to realise fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow is caught up in the tackle and knows there will be space in behind the line. He gives nothing away as he takes possession on the left edge which gets Ben Hampton (filling in at fullback) chasing hard to the far side of the field. Having now effectively exposed the poor positioning of two fullbacks in this play, Amone kicks back on the inside and lands the ball in a 5x5m patch of grass between three Cowboys players for Sloan who plants it down in the in-goal. 

Not bad for a pair with less than 20 NRL games between them. 

There’s room in the 17 for all three to combine if Griffin decides to put Amone in the halves, keep Sloan at fullback and play Sullivan off the bench at hooker. I’m not expecting the Dragons to line up this way next season but at the same time I won’t be surprised or disappointed if they do. They’ll be all the more effective in 2022 with Ben Hunt organising the rest of the team from halfback and it’s a playmaking combination St George can build an attack around in the not-too-distant future. 

1 – Jack de Belin

If there is ever a player who will ‘be better for the run’ next season, it’s Jack de Belin. 

The socials were on fire after de Belin’s first few games back but by season’s end he had done enough to suggest he can still be a force in the NRL. From 11 games in the middle de Belin averaged 109 running metres and 38.5 tackles with a 96.4% tackle efficiency – very busy numbers for a player returning from a two year absence and numbers that are every chance of improving with a full preseason under his belt. As was the case earlier in his career, however, it was de Belin’s ballplaying through the middle third that caused the most problems for opposition defences. 

Close to the ruck, de Belin has the vision and ball skills to expose little cracks in the defensive line as they appear.

In this action against the Titans in Round 19, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and Kevin Proctor both shoot out of the line to contain de Belin which leaves a tiny space on Proctor’s outside shoulder. In a split-second, de Belin turns his body and pops the pass for Ben Hunt to sneak through virtually untouched.

In Round 15 against the Dragons and in a similar position on the field, de Belin linked with a forward partner when the defence was a little more passive. Just as the Titans did above, Josh Hodgson rushes out at de Belin but his teammate Corey Harawira-Naera holds his position in the line next to him.

Without skipping a beat, de Belin pops a pass into the space for Paul Vaughan. The big prop wins the contact on a flat-footed Harawira-Naera and gets a magical offload away to Corey Norman to score, but you can put it down to how well de Belin read and reacted to the defence in the lead up. He can punish the slightest of errors by defenders in the line and it forces the opposition to tighten up through the middle and check de Belin and his lead runners whenever the Dragons look to shift the ball. This inevitably creates more space for his teammates out wide.

De Belin was about 20 minutes into his return to the NRL in Round 13 when he set this up.

He carries the ball deep into the line to attract three Broncos defenders around the ball before shifting smoothly out the back to Corey Norman. Two more clean passes is all it takes to get Cody Ramsey into space – space that de Belin created from pivot in the lead up. 

All the good teams in today’s game have a ballplaying lock at the core of their attacking shapes. Some of the lesser teams have one too (de Belin for the Dragons, Tohu Harris for the Warriors) but are not using them effectively. How heavily de Belin can get involved in St George’s attacking structures in 2022 will go a long way to improving on their 11th placed offence this season. I’m getting in early and picking up some de Belin stocks before the market updates accordingly.

~ Oscar

Summer Notepad

The NRL Notepad is a feature that has run all season. With the 2021 campaign wrapped up, we’re starting to think about what we’d like to see between now and March next year.

The Dragons continued with their “moneyball”* approach with the signing of Moses Mbye.

You know, signing a previously overpaid player that isn’t wanted by other clubs is a questionable approach and one we won’t really be able to assess until this time next year, but it keeps the Dragons interesting. Where Mbye fits in all of this, in particular.