How Garrick helped prepare Dragons rookies for NRL

Rookie St George Illawarra forwards Dylan Egan and Hamish Stewart trained alongside Manly centre Reuben Garrick during their off-season break.

Now they are aiming to help the Dragons achieve a win against him and the Sea Eagles in Thursday night’s match at 4 Pines Park, just as they did against Storm utility Tyran Wishart three weeks ago.

Egan and Stewart are the most recent Gerringong products to make the rise to the NRL ranks, joining Garrick, Wishart, Warriors forward Jackson Ford and Knights winger Kyle McCarthy, who debuted last season in Round 24.

Stewart made his NRL debut in the opening round against the Bulldogs and he was joined by Egan – his long time Gerringong Lions and Illawarra Steelers junior team-mate – in Round 4 against the Storm.

The sextet are just the latest of a long line of Gerringong products to play at the elite level – from Mick Cronin, Peter Ford and Ron Quinn to Rod Wishart, the Sims brothers, Ashton, Tariq and Korbin, and sister Ruan, to Jack Murchie, who is now with Huddersfield in England.

However, regardless of where they are playing, all roads lead to Gerringong on the NSW South Coast during the off-season and the NRL stars put aside their rivalries to train together.

“Reuben comes down and trains with us in the off-season,” Egan said. "Scotty Stewart, who is Hamish’s dad, runs some sessions and they are pretty tough, but we get a lot of lads there.

“Jackson Ford comes back from the Warriors, you’ve got Reuben and Wishy, and the first graders from Gerringong. There’s a lot of the local lads that aren't playing rep footy or anything, they just come to help us out and play some games.

“Scotty’s sessions in the off-season, coming into the pre-season, are very tough. It’s just up at the footy field and I don’t think there is much science behind it - it's just running, and keep running.

“We normally do some fitness and then just games, like full field touch… it’s very tough but we have fun.”

For Egan, the off-season training has paid off as he scored a try while making a game-high 47 tackles after starting for the first time in the second row against the Titans at WIN Stadium last Friday night.

The 20-year is regarded as one of the fittest players at the Dragons after finishing third behind star fullback Clint Gutherson and rookie halfback Jonah Glover in a gruelling pre-season road run to the top of Mt Keira, which sits 463 metres above Wollongong.

“I have just always tried to do the best I can, train hard and compete,” he said.

“We had two good coaches, David Ward and John Ford, who coached us from under 6s all the way to under 18s and I think they taught us a lot as footy players, but also as men – try to be good blokes and just to train hard, and go after it.

“I’d go to WIN Stadium as a kid and sit on the hill, going for the Red V, so to now be playing here is a dream come true.”

As for playing against Garrick, who last month became a father after fiancée, Riley Wishart, gave birth to a daughter, Elsie, Egan said: “I guess we got a win over Wishy so I can’t wait to do the same against Reuben”.

“The Wisharts are legends down south,” he said. “I remember playing in the Rod Wishart Cup in primary school, so for Wishy to wish me luck that week and to get the win on them in my debut was very exciting.

“I was 18th man watching Hamish in his debut and just the excitement I had for him, and even some nerves … to see how well he went sort of assured me that I was ready to make that step up. It gave me a lot of confidence for my debut.”

Despite suffering a minor elbow injury in the 38-16 defeat of the Titans, Egan was at Mick Cronin Oval last Saturday to watch the Gerringong Lions team coached by Scott Stewart played Jamberoo.

“Gerringong has a real good culture, there are always kids out kicking a ball, so to come through and live out our dreams, with Hamish and the other juniors in the NRL, just means a lot to our family and friends,” Egan said.

“Everyone is a really tight down there, we still go to their training sessions and help them out where we can.

“They come and watch us play and it's amazing to go watch them on our off days, and to see them play well and do what they love. I'm sure a lot of them, if they were given the right opportunity, could be here exactly where we are.”