Aug 28th, 2018

Aug 28th, 2018

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has tipped the Dragons to limp out of the finals in the first week and says he's worried about the mental state of their million-dollar halfback Ben Hunt.

With St George Illawarra in freefall after arriving at the Origin period in first place, their star recruit has come under increasing scrutiny as his form has dropped off a cliff.

The club hit rock bottom with the players booed from the field after Sunday's thumping loss to the lowly Bulldogs.

And it was once again Hunt who was the target of some of the most damning analysis, with Craig Wing telling Fox Sports' Big League Wrap it looked as though the representative No.7 "didn't really care".

Johns stopped short of accusing Hunt of giving up but told Wide World of Sports he feared for the 28-year-old's well being as a result of the pressure on his shoulders.

"I wouldn't say he gave up but he's terribly out of form, I think the Origin knocked him around where he got dropped from halfback back to the bench, I think that really knocked him about," Johns .

"And I think the external pressure of everyone talking about him's really got to him.

"Look I really worry about how he's handling it and his mental state because that wasn't the Ben Hunt I've seen over the years playing, he was missing tackles.

"I wouldn't say that he gave up but you could see that he was awfully out of form. I hope there's someone down in Wollongong or wherever he lives giving him a hug because I really worry about him at the moment."

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Johns' expression of concern for the mental state of Hunt comes just a fortnight after the 28-year-old's wife leapt to his defence on social media, calling out the "bullying" culture that she claimed fans and pundits were guilty of engaging in when players went through difficult times in their career.

However, the crowd's reaction on Sunday clearly illustrated that the fanbase expects more from their team and with Hunt their highest paid player he has become an obvious target for scrutiny.

While Johns said it was fair to apportion a significant amount of blame for the Dragons' current attacking impotence on Hunt he also pointed to Jack De Belin as a player who had started the year strongly but was now "cooked" at the end of another season where the Red V has tailed off dramatically.

Johns said coach Paul McGregor had to be under pressure due to the trend that has led to the club mockingly referred to as 'May premiers' but said his coaching staff and the club's strength and conditioning program also needed to be looked at.

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"You can give the analogy of the Melbourne Cup, you don't want your horse peaking in January for the Melbourne Cup," Johns said.

"It's too long, you can't train them that hard for that long. It can be a physical thing but it's also a mental thing.



"(McGregor will) be under pressure for sure because this keeps happening. But I think you've got to look at the staff around him and the strength and conditioning and how they go about it.

"It's just such a fine line because you need them to be fit at the start of the year but you don't need them to be 100 per cent. By the look of it, they peaked at around Origin time and from there they went down hill."