Dragons frustrated over streak queries - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Dragons frustrated over streak queries

By David Beniuk 07/07/2008 07:52:40 PM Comments (0)

St George Illawarra hooker Dean Young has hit back at suggestions the Dragons have had easy games against depleted opposition during their seven-game NRL winning streak.

The joint venture club is on its biggest roll since 2006 and will attempt to equal its best-ever streak, achieved in 2005, when it hosts Canberra at WIN Stadium this Sunday.

And while the Dragons may have developed a winning habit, they've also hit upon some long overdue luck, remaining largely injury-free and running into Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Newcastle during the taxing State of Origin period.

"Probably the most frustrating thing in the last seven weeks is that people have come out and said that we've had an easy run," Young told AAP.

"Whether that's true or not, we seem to get bagged when we lose and then we seem to get bagged when we're winning.

"It's not like we're asking them to take their State of Origin players out.

"All we're doing is training hard, preparing for the weekend and playing who's out there, and in the last seven weeks we've been beating whoever the other sides have been putting out there."

The red and whites, who have also lost star players in Mark Gasnier and Matt Cooper during the Origin period, kicked off their run with a 36-12 win over a Storm outfit missing nine Origin reps in round 10.

But they backed up that win, their third of 2008, with a gritty 20-18 victory over full strength ladder leaders Manly at Brookvale Oval a week later.

"I don't think we deserve more credit, we're definitely not asking for it," Young said.

"But we haven't had any players come out and say we're going to win the comp or that we're going to finish in the top four.

"We've been real quiet, we've just been going about our business and working hard and grinding away.

"We've still got a lot of work to do, we don't think we're playing anywhere near our best yet so we'll just keep plugging away."

Young puts his side's success down to stability, particularly in the key positions of fullback (Brett Morris), five-eighth (Jamie Soward), halfback (Ben Hornby) and hooker (Young).

"I think the secret to the last seven weeks is we've had everyone fit - the main combinations of the seven, the six, the one and the nine - and we're getting used to each other's habits on the field," Young said.

"And we've got some players playing some really good footy in the forwards, especially (props) Jason Ryles and Justin Poore.

"It's all contributing."

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