3 minute read

St George Illawarra's resurgence under coach Anthony Griffin has been built on players being unselfish and not letting their teammates down.

Anthony Griffin's St George Illawarra resurgence has come off the back of what he labels a 75-minute mantra aimed at eradicating any hint of selfishness.

With the Dragons written off in the pre-season and with questions over his coaching ability, Griffin has the surprise packets of the NRL sitting in the top four after five rounds.

The Red V were a team hurting at the end of last year, almost guilty at times of trying too hard to play to save the popular Paul McGregor and his immediate replacement Dean Young.

But their turnaround has come after a summer of straight talking from Griffin.

Put simply, he reminded players that they have the ball for just a few moments per game, with at least 75 minutes of the match being played in defence or support play.

In turn, he has told players the moment they think of themselves in training or games they are being selfish, and letting their teammates down.

"Hook been driving it since day one of pre-season," fullback Matt Dufty said.

"We're 75 minutes without the ball and doing your job for your teammates.

"Even when we're doing laps around the oval doing ridiculous kilometres he's saying: 'you find that extra metre and extra second in the time for your teammate, don't worry about yourself'.

"If you're thinking about yourself then you let your teammates down."

The proof so far is in the pudding with the Dragons playing far more direct and less on the edges.

As is typical of Griffin-coached sides, their defence has improved significantly.

While they are missing nine more tackles per match, their scamble and cover defence has them conceding far less points at just 17 points per game.

"Everyone has really bought into it I think you can tell out there by our scramble," Dufty said.

"Maybe last year we wouldn't have done it but this year there's a real focus on that.

"If someone gets beaten it's not their fault, it's the other people's fault that they weren't there to help them out."

Players point to the way they handled the 10 minutes with 12 men against the Eels as proof of the mantra, where they had no ball but conceded just one try.

It was not previously used in Griffin's previous coaching ventures, including Brisbane where Josh McGuire became the fourth of his former Broncos at the Dragons on Tuesday.

"It's just about working hard," hooker Andrew McCullogh said.

"You've only got the ball for that split moment so whatever you can do to benefit the team without the ball (is big).

"There are no small parts that go unnoticed inside this group."