St George Illawarra captain Clint Gutherson has thrown his support behind the club’s pursuit of Scott Drinkwater – even though it means relinquishing the No.1 jersey.
The Dragons slumped to a 0-6 start to the season after Friday night’s 28-18 loss to Manly in Wollongong, heaping more pressure on coach Shane Flanagan. It extends the club’s losing streak to 10, but the bad news doesn’t stop there. Maroons forward Jaydn Su’A has opted not to trigger an extension option in his contract and is poised to defect to Parramatta at the end of the season.
After missing out on Dragons-bound Rabbitohs forward Keaon Koloamatangi, the Eels turned their attention to Su’A and are poised to get their man. The development is a further blow to the winless club, which is scheduled to face the Rabbitohs and Roosters before the bye.
While there is a freeze on retention at the Red V, the stance doesn’t apply to recruitment. This masthead revealed that Cowboys fullback Scott Drinkwater has been offered early permission to negotiate with rival clubs, with Wollongong shaping as his most likely destination.
The Dragons have made it clear they are after a new fullback after targeting Drinkwater following an unsuccessful bid for Dolphin Trai Fuller. It’s an acknowledgement that there are concerns that Gutherson, who is contracted until the end of next season, is struggling to keep pace with the modern game.
It’s a delicate situation for the club given Gutherson is their current captain and custodian. However, the former Eel hopes the Dragons land the signature of Drinkwater and has no qualms about stepping into another position.
“100 per cent. He’s a high-quality player, and you need those types of players,” Gutherson said. “I’m not against any of that, and I’m sure the club is doing everything they can to bring someone like that to the club …
“I’m all for it, things like this don’t bother me. That’s the club, that’s what they’re doing, they’re making our squad and our team better.
“If that’s for a fullback, then I’m all for it. I’ve always said in my whole career, I’ll play wherever and it doesn’t bother me.
“I want to win. We all want to win, we want to be better. We want to have a better squad, and if they think that’s the role, that’s the role.”
It’s a selfless stance from Gutherson, who was also prepared to step aside as Parramatta fullback for Blaize Talagi and eventual successor Isaiah Iongi before the Dragons signed him.
Asked which position he saw himself shifting to if Drinkwater arrived, the 31-year-old said: “How I play, it doesn’t really matter where I am on the field, I sort of just go about my game.
“Hopefully I don’t get another tap on the shoulder like I did with Iongi. You just want to have the strongest squad, the strongest players, and then you just fit in. Whatever they’re working on, hopefully it all comes true, and we can add a player of that calibre to our team.”
A hamstring injury that will sideline Gutherson for a further month prevented him from playing against the Sea Eagles. However, he stepped forward to publicly support embattled coach Flanagan.
“Definitely. That’s the weird thing at the moment; we’re not getting the results, but we’re all behind closed doors on the same page,” he said.
“We’re all trying to play for him, all the coaching staff, all the players. Obviously, it’s not where we want it to be, and no-one does, but it’s where we’re at.
“The only thing we can do is go out there and compete hard and show how much he means to us, and I think we did that [against Manly] …
“Bar one game we’ve been in every fight. We’ve been in the fight, we led in every game bar last week, and again it’s come down to a moment in the game that we haven’t iced or someone hasn’t iced, and they’ve gone down the other way and scored. In the NRL you can’t do that, and we’ve been in every game bar last week against the Cowboys. We could easily be three or four wins, and you just never know.
“But we’re not. This is where we’re at and that’s where you get judged on.”
The recruitment freeze has left the futures of off-contract players Damien Cook, Tyrell Sloan, Christian Tuipulotu, Emre Guler, Hame, Sele, Luciano Leilua, Mat Feagai and Nathan Lawson in limbo.
Cook – whose negotiations for a one-year contract extension were halted – said he understood the club’s stance.
“When it comes down to it, we’re the ones on the weekend out there playing, and we’re just not getting it done at the moment,” Cook said.
“It’s always been a motivator for everyone to try and play for as long as they can in this great game, definitely for me personally. You probably have to ask the other players as well how they can respond to that.”
