St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor has lashed out at criticism of his decision to rest Ben Hunt last week, saying it was purely for his star’s welfare.

McGregor has been pilloried for icing their million-dollar halfback from last week’s loss to Penrith, which left the Dragons four points off the top eight in 14th spot.

Hunt is one of four changes McGregor made for Friday’s match with South Sydney, along with the anticipated return of skipper Gareth Widdop.

The Dragons also have a new wing pairing of debutant Jason Saab and Zac Lomax following the axing of Mikaele Ravalawa and Jonus Pearson.

McGregor fiercely defended his call to sit out Hunt despite the team’s precarious position on the ladder with just eight games remaining in the regular season.

“A lot’s been said about it over the last week. It was a conversation between me and Ben. I made the decision,” McGregor said on Thursday.

Hunt played all 240 minutes of the State of Origin series in the unfamiliar position of hooker, and then backed up for the Dragons four days after the decider.

While McGregor was confident in his halfback pushing the limit in that loss to Canberra, it was in that game that he saw signs of fatigue.

“For the welfare of the player and betterment of the team in the future to finish the season well, it was time for Ben to not play,” McGregor said.

“If I’ve put Ben on the field and he was injured through fatigue and we didn’t have him for this week or for the rest of the year, how would that have looked?

“So a decision was made. We need to move on.”

Hunt will team with Widdop for the first time since the English international dislocated his shoulder against Brisbane in round three.

Corey Norman has been moved to fullback for the first time in club colours.

“(Gareth is) at six because he hasn’t played any footy for about 18-20 weeks. The loads that you do have at fullback are extremely high,” McGregor said.

“And Normy wanted to go back there, to be honest.

“He was keen and Gareth wanted to play six. It’s important that you get players comfortable playing in positions.

“That’s the way, we spoke about as a group and that’s the way it’s going out tomorrow night. We might see them mix it up a bit.”