Million-dollar man Ben Hunt has taken responsibility for St George Illawarra’s woes this season with a scathing self-review of his NRL form.
The Dragons have wildly underachieved in 2019 with just six wins from 19 games despite boasting five State of Origin players.
They’ve lost five on the bounce and Queensland representative Hunt – whose $6 million deal started last season – admitted he needed to improve his form.
“(It’s) pretty ordinary to be honest,” Hunt said.
“I feel like I’ve been trying pretty hard and working on things at training and I’m really trying to assert myself in games. But I think I’ve probably just been over-pushing things a bit – trying to throw passes when they’re not there or just trying to force things when they’re not really on.
“As a halve you can’t be doing that, obviously there’s going to be mistakes in a game but I’m meant to be a leader in the team and I think I need to clean those things up.”
Hunt said the pressure which comes with his sizeable contract wasn’t an excuse, while also refusing to blame the toll State of Origin took on the club.
“I think everyone is paid pretty well in the NRL and I just need to worry about what I’m doing on the field and carrying my load,” Hunt said.
“I’m the halfback and I can’t be coming up with those mistakes.
“We’re not winning games so something is going wrong but I don’t think we can nail it down to guys coming back from Origin.
“Right across the park, there’s been guys that can improve in different areas. It’s just a real mixed bag.”
The Dragons are only two wins ahead of the bottom-placed Gold Coast, who they host in round 21 on Saturday and Hunt admitted avoiding the wooden spoon was a motivating factor.
“You have a look at the ladder and you’re down towards the bottom there and you think ‘Oh jeez we don’t really want to be getting that’. In the back of everyone’s mind I think it’s going to be a bit of motivation this weekend to get the win.
“I can understand them calling for blood and we’ve probably let our fans down a fair bit this year. We’ve got a quality team here we’re just not winning games and in the position we should be.
“We owe it to them to come out and win a few games.”