Dragons' 'unusual selections' raise questions

Rugby league fable Peter Sterling is unconvinced by St George Illawarra manager Anthony Griffin's fullback experimentation with Jack Bird, urging the seasoned manager to look elsewhere.

Bird was thrown the No.1 jersey ahead of past weekend's clash important clash against the Raiders, with the Red V's finals hopes hanging by a thread.

They went down 20-12 arsenic the Dragons continued a fearfulness four-game losing streak, inactive yet to triumph since the now-infamous barbecue astatine Paul Vaughan's house.

Jack Bird. (Getty)

While Sterling understood that Griffin had been forced to experimentation by the raft of suspensions handed down pursuing the barbecue, helium recovered it hard to recognize Bird's determination to fullback.

Yet adjacent aft an unsuccessful archetypal showing, Griffin has stuck with the move, naming Bird astatine fullback again for Friday's clash with the Panthers.

"Jack Bird astatine fullback was an absorbing one. I don't spot that being a semipermanent one," Sterling told Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap.

"I person large respect for Anthony Griffin arsenic a manager and I cognize that he's gone done a hard play arsenic to who he's had and who helium hasn't, but helium needs to either travel up with Matt Dufty oregon Tyrell Sloan astatine fullback, and players successful positions that they're going to play for the remainder of the season.

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"There's been a batch – and I cognize helium hasn't had a prime (because of BBQ-gate) – but there's been immoderate antithetic selections, I suppose."

Bird's displacement to fullback comes astatine the outgo of promising youngster Tyrell Sloan who got an accidental successful caller weeks up of Bulldogs-bound speedster Matt Dufty.

A fearfulness tally location volition lone origin much headaches for Griffin and his Dragons with the likes of the Panthers, Roosters, Cowboys and Rabbitohs each lasting betwixt them and a fading finals berth.

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