'We want to build a dynasty': The plan to end years of Dragons disappointment

Dragons CEO Tim Watsford has declared the next 12 months will be transformative for the club as he looks to wake the sleeping giant of Australian sport.

The new year will start with a trip to Las Vegas, before St George Illawarra opens a new centre of excellence in Wollongong and Watsford hopes it will end with a finals appearance for both the NRL and NRLW sides.

It’s a crucial stepping stone in an ambitious project, the new boss told marvelbet365.com in an expansive interview, as he looks to transform the joint venture into a global sporting superpower.

“We’re at a point where no one is comfortable where we are,” Watsford said. “Both the NRLW and NRL programs are down the bottom of the ladder and it’s not where we want to be.

“Awakening the beast comes through having on-field success but sport is a business and to achieve that success we need structures and processes in all areas of the club’s operations.

“We’re at a point in the journey now that the next 12 months will be critical. We have a board that wants change and is supporting management in doing so. At the end of the day, our core business is football and everything we do is aimed towards winning premierships.”

It hasn’t taken long for Watsford to make his mark at the Dragons, with the new boss shaking up his front office staff.

St George Illawarra legend Ben Creagh has shifted from the club’s board to the role of chief operating officer, while Daniel Anderson has signed on as recruitment manager and key non-football staff have been hired in finance and corporate roles.

While Watsford is thinking globally, he has turned his focus to within to lay the foundation for the Dragons’ return to their former glory.

Anderson’s remit involves running the joint venture’s vast pathways programs as the CEO looks to reinvigorate a fertile junior nursery to produce the next generation of stars.

St George Illawarra have long rolled out a production line of talented youngsters, but the club has found it difficult to turn them into elite first-grade players.

Some, such as Jack Bostock, Reuben Garrick and Tyran Wishart were let go by the Dragons early in their careers and developed into stars for rival clubs. Others who stayed in Wollongong struggled to reach their full potential.  

It’s a situation Watsford is desperate to change, particularly as the NRL expands and two new clubs enter the hotly contested player market.

“We want to build a dynasty,” he said. “There’s a development pathway particularly through the Illawarra region that is a rich nursery and plenty of other clubs can be fishing from it.

“We’ve got key people like Daniel [Anderson] looking at what does success look like and working our way back from there. Building that robust pipeline is a must have for us.

“We’ve got Perth coming online, we’ve got PNG coming, they’re going to need players from somewhere. We want to make sure we are developing the best crop and keeping them.”

There is a sense of urgency in Watsford’s plans as he moves to ensure an opportunity to turn junior premierships into NRL success isn’t squandered.

St George won the SG Ball title in 2024, with Loko Pasifiki Tonga and Jacob Halangahu already stepping up to first grade in 2025.

Others, such as Cyrus Stanley-Traill look set to follow in the coming years.

Throw in a Steelers Harold Matthews side that finished with the minor premiership in 2025 and the future is looking bright.

The club has been here before.

The Steelers claimed the SG Ball title in 2019. Jayden Sullivan, Junior Amone, Mat and Max Feagai, Tyrell Sloan and Aaron Schoupp were all meant to usher in a new era of success.

Six years on, just Sloan and Mat Feagai remain at the club and both have struggled to lock down their place in the first-grade side. The Dragons have not played in the NRL finals during that time.

Already some members of the 2024 St George SG Ball side have left for rival clubs leaving fans concerned history could be repeated.

Where the Dragons have struggled, other teams have thrived. Penrith built a four-year reign of NRL dominance on the back of a streamlined pathways program. The Roosters bid farewell to a host of senior players and rebuilt around a young core in less than a year.

Watsford has looked closely at his rivals’ success and has even turned to European soccer clubs as he searches for the secret sauce St George Illawarra has been missing.

It’s only early, but the new boss is optimistic he has found it.

“I’ve got a view that we are different because we have a footprint in Sydney and in Wollongong,” Watsford said. “That gives us a chance to think differently about what will make our system work.

“You look at what is best practice, not only other rugby league clubs but also the AFL and abroad. We’ve looked at what they’re doing in European soccer to cement their pathways and how they attract talent at a junior level.

“We want to invest in the players who have grown up in our backyard and are ultimately going to bleed the Red V. I can see that particularly in Hamish Stewart, Dylan Egan, the two Couchman brothers. They all are from the Illawarra and have such a connection to the jersey.

“You can see when they’re on the field how much they want success. Our job is to replicate that right across the field. If I could fill up a team full of Illawarra and St George juniors, we will do that. Our job’s to invest and make sure these guys have every opportunity to play first grade and win in the Red V.”

It’s been a lean 15 years for Dragons fans since a drought-breaking premiership in 2010.

The club has played finals just twice since Wayne Bennett departed at the end of 2011 and churned through three coaches before Shane Flanagan took over in 2024.

Their last top-eight finish was back in 2018, the second longest active drought in the league behind only the Tigers.

St George Illawarra has not fared much better off the field, with the joint venture battling financial issues throughout the 2010s.

The purchase of the Steelers’ 50% stake by billionaire Bruce Gordon put those struggles in the rearview mirror and the club is now on solid financial footing.

Green shoots are also starting to emerge across the board. Flanagan recently inked a two-year extension through to 2028, providing certainty to current players and potential recruits.

The opportunity to open the season in Las Vegas will put the club on the world stage and expose the famous brand to a potential audience in the hundreds of millions.

A new multi-million dollar centre of excellence is slated to open in Wollongong in early 2026, bringing all employees of the club into the one building for the first time.

While results were not where they wanted to be in 2025, there were positive signs on the field.

The Dragons defeated the Raiders, Sharks, Broncos and Storm and lost eight games by six points or less.

An injury crisis forced Flanagan to blood a host of youngsters, with a crop of local juniors showing plenty of promise.

Hamish Stewart, Dylan Egan and Hayden Buchanan were among the debutants, while the Couchman twins showed plenty of improvement before suffering season-ending injuries.

The club’s NRLW side also took some big steps forward under new head coach Nathan Cross, with Indie Bostock and Kasey Reh emerging as future stars.

After previously sitting on the board, St George Illawarra legend Ben Creagh has been tasked with leading the football department into a new era of success.

The premiership winner will have oversight of the men’s and women’s programs and will work closely Ben Haran and Sam Bremner, the respective NRL and NRLW football managers, to ensure the Dragons make the most of a promising junior base.

Having tasted plenty of success in the Red V throughout his career, Creagh won’t accept anything less in his new role.

“With my experience as a former player and my recent experience outside of football, I will provide another voice, another opinion to help the club move forward,” Creagh said. “To help the club move towards a high-performing culture and an elite culture so we can be successful.

“Everyone who’s involved with the Dragons wants to win premierships. We want to be playing finals footy again and we want the club to be successful off the field as well.”

While progress is important in 2026, a small step forward won’t be enough to satisfy club bosses.

Watsford is desperate to see the Dragons change course as they look to put years of disappointment in the rearview mirror.

With stability on and off the field, the CEO is targeting a finals finish for both the men and women. That, he hopes, will provide a platform for a premiership charge in the years to come.

“We need to be better,” Watsford said. “That’s the phrase we’re implementing across the club. Be better tomorrow than we are today.

“Finishing 15th isn’t acceptable but there were green shoots coming through that showed us what this club can be. We have to be better in 2026 and then in 2027 we’ll be better again.

“We’re not going to win a premiership overnight, but we’re genuinely on the journey now. I’d like to be vying for finals in 26, that’s absolutely within our grasp. We want both the men and the women to be climbing the ladder next year.”