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But right now Young is actually cleaning house. It\u2019s 6.30pm in the sheds at CommBank Stadium. St George Illawarra have just completed their fourth win of the season, and Young \u2013 chatty, steely and abundantly calm all at once \u2013 is cleaning up the remnants of the team\u2019s celebration song, which happened moments earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s that sort of guy,\u201d Dragons hooker Jacob Liddle says of Young rolling up his sleeves. \u201cThe big thing with Deano is that he cares.\u201d<\/p>\n
St George Illawarra players celebrate their win over the Wests Tigers. Source: NRL Dragons.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Last-placed on the NRL ladder after a period of intense, unrelenting pressure, St George Illawarra have weathered some tough days this year, but there is a genuine sense of optimism about how this proud club has rebounded from its lowest ebb with Young at the helm.<\/p>\n
In this foxsports.com.au feature, the 42-year-old gives an insight into how he handled the toughest moments since taking over from Shane Flanagan as Dragons coach in April, the men he has assembled to lead the club forward, and why he\u2019s taking a personal approach to making the Dragons a better experience for players. <\/p>\n
THE MINDSET BEHIND YOUNG\u2019S COACHING STYLE<\/p>\n
When the chips were down at the Dragons in April this year, seven games into a season with no wins, no coach and a freeze on recruitment, Dean Young employed a very simple ethos upon being thrusted into the temporary coaching role \u2013 and later as a permanent fixture in July.<\/p>\n
There were no Churchillian speeches, no impromptu boot camps. Just a simple approach with authenticity at its heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe yourself. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not always going to be everyone\u2019s cup of tea as a coach. Some people are really going to like your style of coaching, and there\u2019s some that probably don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut players are smart: they see through people trying to be something you\u2019re not. So just be yourself and see where it lands you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young\u2019s approach to the game makes sense when you consider, as a player, it helped reap a kid from the Dapto Canaries a premiership with the Dragons back in 2010, together with NSW and Kangaroos honours. On the field he was as tough as they come; in his final years he was consigned to field training only 20 minutes the day before a game \u2013 such was the extent of a chronic knee injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuses aren\u2019t a part of his genetic makeup. They just don\u2019t exist in Dean\u2019s life,\u201d Wayne Bennett, who coached Young to that 2010 premiership, once said.<\/p>\n
Dean Young (L) and captain Ben Hornby hoist the NRL Telstra Premiership Trophy as they leave the field after St George-Illawarra Dragons defeated the Sydney Roosters in 2010 NRL Grand Final at ANZ Stadium, Olympic Park, Homebush in Sydney.Source: News Limited<\/p>\n
In a coaching apprenticeship which has encompassed assistant roles at St George Illawarra, North Queensland, Tonga and NSW, and more recently at the Dragons under predecessor Shane Flanagan, there have some key lessons for Young along the way. He has one key takeaway from this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a lesson, but when I took the job I knew it was going to be a really tough job. I was really conscious of staying calm through that period and I knew I hate losing, but me walking around angry and shitty after losses wasn\u2019t going to help us in the situation we were in,\u201d Young says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe players needed support and guidance. I just approached it that way \u2013 that they needed me to support them and that\u2019s what I tried to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we didn\u2019t show signs of improvement, I wouldn\u2019t have got the opportunity to coach the team for the next two years. I\u2019m forever grateful for the staff and the players to buy into the change; to show improvement. It has given me another opportunity to show what we can do, and it\u2019s up to me now. Make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The improvements might not have been immediately obvious to the NRL world. But Young said he noticed incremental gains in just his second week at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way we trained and how we stripped everything back, we went back to fundamentals,\u201d Young reflects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept on saying it in press conferences, and everybody looked at me like, \u2018You\u2019ve just been flogged again\u2019. I kept saying, \u2018I\u2019m seeing it at training\u2019 and no-one probably believed us. But I\u2019ve been around footy for a long time and you can see when people are committing to things. We\u2019ve slowly improved, we\u2019re still not where we need to be: it\u2019s been a disappointing year \u2013 we can\u2019t hide away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dragons claw further from spoon | 03:30<\/p>\n
Another four weeks went past without a win. And then on May 31 this year, 295 days since their last victory, the Dragons upset the Broncos to finally break through. The win merely formalised the improvement Young and the playing group had already seen.<\/p>\n
There have been slivers of hope since then, too. Having posted their second consecutive win last Sunday \u2013 the first time that has happened since August, 2025 \u2013 the Dragons dressing sheds are beginning to resemble the look of a side on the rise. Not overjoyed, but connected.<\/p>\n
The players are buying in, and the Red V faithful are taking notice too. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the season we\u2019ve wanted. But the last couple of months we\u2019ve showed a bit of consistency and progression,\u201d says Liddle, who has been at the club since 2023. \u201cThe boys are doing well. They\u2019re fighting hard, and all the young boys coming through are playing good footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDean\u2019s style is simple. He has some good fundamentals that we\u2019ve gone back to, that has got our game and the boys going forward. We\u2019re playing a lot straighter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big thing with Deano is that he cares. He shows that off the field, the boys have all bought into what he\u2019s brought to this coaching role. He\u2019ll take you aside for conversations that you need during the week. He\u2019s doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE MEN BEHIND THE SCENES<\/p>\n
Dean Young wasted no time in appointing the people he wanted to help him lead the Dragons out of the doldrums.<\/p>\n
Assistant Mick Ennis was sacked and replaced by Tom Eisenhuth, who retired from playing at the Dragons last year and was involved in the club\u2019s academy system, while esteemed footy head John Davey was brought in as head of sports science, video analysis and conditioning.<\/p>\n
When you consider there\u2019s Young, Ben Creagh as the Dragons\u2019 chief operating officer, and Tim Watsford as chief executive, it\u2019s a relatively youthful team \u2013 so it stood to reason that the appointed head of football was experienced and knew the Dragons inside-out.<\/p>\n
That man is Scott Stewart, a Gerringong local who has been in the Dragons system for more than 20 years and is the father of gun forward Hamish Stewart. Anyone who has spent time around the Dragons will recognise Stewart\u2019s face: he is the heart and soul of the club.<\/p>\n
According to Young, Stewart\u2019s leadership through the tougher moments of the season has been invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the club\u2019s credit when I was given the job as interim coach, they said, \u2018What do you need?\u2019 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t need anything, except to have Scotty with me\u2019,\u201d Young remembers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis role at the club was in welfare, but I said that I needed him with me. Scotty has been around footy for a long, long time. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the situation we were in, coming last and not winning a game, having Scotty there I knew was going to be good for the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other piece of the puzzle has been former Warriors and Eels coach Daniel Anderson, who joined the Dragons midway through 2025 as head of recruitment and pathways. Anderson was instrumental in landing the Dragons\u2019 first marquee signing for 2027, Souths gun Keaon Koloamatangi, back in January. Some big names have followed: Scott Drinkwater, Luke Metcalf, Phillip Sami, Connor Watson and Kodi Nikorima.<\/p>\n
But what is equally comforting to Dragons fans is that the club is acutely focused on the retention of its juniors for the first time in a long time. They\u2019ve re-signed Loko Jr Pasifiki Tonga, a player who wanted out at the start of the year, along with Hamish Stewart, Jacob Halangahu, Dylan Egan and Ryan and Toby Couchman.<\/p>\n
NRL 2026 RD24NRL 2026 RD24 Wests Tigers v St. George Illawarra Dragons – Hamish Stewart, Try,Source: Supplied<\/p>\n
Remember the Dragons boast one of the largest rugby league nurseries in the country \u2013 an expanse covering nearly 10,000 juniors, from Arncliffe to Batemans Bay \u2013 but there\u2019s an argument the club has lost sight of its pathways over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Officials are working hard to capitalise on the big catchment once again, and Young and his team are arrow-focused on ensuring the players who do come into first grade are nurtured properly.<\/p>\n
Take Hamish Stewart. A prodigious Gerringong junior who only shot up in stature during his SG Ball years, the 22-year-old is spending this year\u2019s campaign in the unfamiliar position of backrower. But Young ultimately sees him as a long-term lock, and will move him when the time is right.<\/p>\n
Stewart is buying in, and his blistering form shows it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve found my feet there on the edge,\u201d Stewart says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings take time. Deano has come in, and to adjust to his systems and things like that, it takes time. People need to realise that but they are seeing the benefits from it now \u2013 what we\u2019re doing. It has been really pleasing to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeano always says that you always start your next week how you end your last halve so we want to build momentum as we go into next year. There\u2019s a lot of excitement around the club and it\u2019s good \u2013 it\u2019s good for the fans, they have stuck with us. There\u2019s better times ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
THE CULTURAL ISSUE YOUNG IS EAGER TO FIX<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sad indictment, but the one turnover greater than coaches at St George Illawarra in recent years has been players.<\/p>\n
Forget Steve Price, Paul McGregor, Anthony Griffin and Shane Flanagan. The club has lost some crucial playing talent and burned bridges along the way. Think Ronald Volkman and his reneged contract, or Zac Lomax and Ben Hunt, who both agitated to go elsewhere.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s the ones that got away without being able to properly develop. Reece Robson, Jackson Ford, Bud Sullivan, Lachlan Ilias, Jonah Glover \u2013 many more.<\/p>\n
Tellingly, in previous tenures, recruitment was cared for solely by the head coach. Now it is a shared process.<\/p>\n
For Young, the time is ripe to help foster a change of culture at the Dragons \u2013 not necessarily to address mistakes of the past, but to promote a happy playing environment in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the other clubs have probably done it better than us, but Tim Watsford, Scott Stewart and myself, we want to make sure that when people come through this club, they leave loving the Dragons,\u201d Young says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thing is about treating people well. Even someone asked me before about the players that are leaving at the end of the season\u2026 If you treat them well and you treat them the right way, then they\u2019ll still try for you.\u201d <\/p>\n
Brimson granted Titans leave permission | 00:32<\/p>\n
Young\u2019s sentiments ring true looking at some of the Dragons stronger performers in recent weeks: Emre Guler, Mathew Feagai, Tyrell Sloan are all headed elsewhere at season\u2019s end, yet they keep buying in.<\/p>\n
The club has also reconnected with its former stars in a move that is having far-reaching positives. Once a month, football manager Stewart invites all ex-players and staff to the Dragons new $65 million facility to train in the morning, go for a coffee and watch the current squad train.<\/p>\n
For Young, the building blocks are in place for this sleeping giant to flourish once again. But tough days are still to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a really tough period for the club. A really tough period for a long period of time. But, I remember standing at last year\u2019s end of season function and everyone\u2019s standing there going, \u2018Next year is going to be good with all these kids coming through\u2019. Round eight, the coach gets sacked and we haven\u2019t won a game,\u201d Young reflects.<\/p>\n
\u201cYep, great kids. Good people, good players. Good signings. But what have we done? All we\u2019ve done is the media has given us a wrap about our recruitment. We\u2019ve done f**k all.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest thing is you\u2019ve got to earn what you get. They\u2019ll be earning it. November 2.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dean Young is getting his house in order. The Dragons coach has assembled the backroom team he wants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-870730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}