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The Dragons have fired back at calls for young guns Jayden Sullivan and Tyrell Sloan to leave the club over a lack of minutes.
Rugby league icon and former St George Illawarra star Wendell Sailor slammed coach Anthony Griffin for his limited use of Sullivan and Sloan this season.
The pair have played just six games each, the latter started the first three games of the season but has barely featured since and was dropped on game day last Sunday.
Sailor accused Griffin of “not believing” in the 20-year-olds, while NRL champion Michael Ennis said he “felt sorry” for Sloan who looks “a shadow of himself”.
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But Jamie Soward – who won a premiership at the Dragons and is coaching the club’s back five this season – hit back on the Fox League Podcast.
“With all due respect to those two guys, they’re not actually in our inner sanctum and understand what we’re trying to do with our younger guys. You can’t just throw them to the wolves, they need to be prepared,” Soward said.
“The last couple of years Bud (Sullivan) has had a couple of hamstring injuries, he also hasn’t played much footy with the bubble last year.
“There was no reserve grade (last year) and this is a kid we’re trying to say ‘go out and play first grade’ with not much footy behind him.
“When I played at the Roosters, I played 24 games in nearly two and a half years coming off the bench, there was no rush to get me in, I had to still learn what 80 minutes of football looked like.
“As for Sloany, he’s played some footy and has still got some stuff to work on. He’s still transitioning, he spent most of his career sort of playing fullback and then he adjusted to the wing and then had to come in and be fullback.
“It’s a high-pressure situation, those kids are very talented, we’re working hard with them and for people to come out who aren’t involved in the inner sanctum of what we’re doing and saying they should leave the club or that we’re not giving them a chance. They haven’t been watching closely or working with them, or understand we’re trying to build their confidence and their understanding of what it takes to be a first-grader.
“I have no doubt both those guys will be Dragons players for a while and play a lot of games.”
Soward believes Panthers superstar Nathan Cleary has “changed the goalposts” for emerging playmakers.
Cleary, 24, burst onto the scene as a teenager in 2016 and made his NRL debut alongside Soward at Penrith.
Just two years later and Cleary was playing for the NSW Blues. The classy halfback has guided Penrith to the past two grand finals and won the premiership last season.
“I played in Nathan Cleary’s first game which was my last game and that seems forever ago, that was 2016, but he has moved the goalposts because he is such a special player,” Soward said.
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“He’s so competitive but also so well organised and such a great professional at such a young age that everyone either wants their kid to be like that or the fans expect the next Nathan Cleary to come through.
“It’s nice if you’re at Penrith to be able to have that luxury but every other club is searching for that.
“It took me a while to learn to play first grade and the real footy heads will understand that 80 minutes is a long time in rugby league.
“You need to learn how to prepare and do all the right things away from footy so you can come out and perform consistently.
“You wait your lifetime to play one game, that’s not the hard part. The hard part is the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.”
James Graham – who worked for the Dragons this season – echoed the sentiment and said Cleary has created “unrealistic” expectations for the next generation of talent.
“Nathan Cleary is just such a consistent performer but he’s got a very good team around him both on and off the field,” Graham told foxsports.com.au.
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“I really like Jayden Sullivan and (Talatau) Amone at the Dragons, we know what they’re capable of but they’re still so young and they’ve got great careers ahead of them.
“They’re still learning and we’re yet to see the best of them and I think from seeing the aptitude of them, particularly Jayden Sullivan, he’s so impressive with his attitude and application and he’s only going to get better with that mindset.
“I think we’ll see him fulfil his potential because he’s keen to work on the areas of his game that aren’t as strong as others. We haven’t seen a lot of Sullivan this year but I think the future is very bright for him.
“Sloan as well, he just needs to exercise a bit of patience, as hard as that is, it’s what needs to happen.”
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