He has come and gone in first-grade over the course of the season, once the Dragons starting centres have returned – but young NYC product Nathan Green will again have the chance to prove his mettle, with both Matt Cooper and Beau Scott out.
Green, who is a Como-Jannali junior, has played three NRL games this season due to injuries to Dragons players, and has played several games for the Dragons feeder team in the NSW Cup, the Illawarra Cutters.
For Green, who scored recently in the Dragons NYC win last week, says that the skills and tools he fine-tunes in the NYC competition, are vital for his development, when he gets the opportunity to play first-grade.
“It’s always good coming back to the boys that I played my junior footy with,†said Green.
“It’s important to bring back my experiences and things that I’ve learned in first-grade, and trying to play good, consistent footy.
“When an opportunity comes up in first-grade like against the Roosters this week, I will take it with both hands.
“It’s great to learn from a player like Matt Cooper, I’m like a sponge around him whenever we train together, and I just try and learn everything I can because he’s the ultimate professional.
“I just try and do little things that he does to improve my game and make me the best player I can be.
“We’ve been in good form recently in the NYC, which I think comes down to following the game plan that the coach gives us, and performing it to the best of our ability.
“We all turn up for each other; we’re a good bunch of mates, and we’re all enjoying our footy at the moment.
“We’ve got good self-belief; even though we were down 12-nil against the Storm, we knew that if we came together we’d be able to get a bit of a roll on.
“Once we scored that first try, we knew we were straight back in it, and we put 24 straight points on.
“We know scoring tries isn’t our problem, we’ve just got to get our defence right.â€