While Hamish Stewart is highly appreciative of the support from Dragons coach Dean Young about him being Australian Kangaroos\u2019 quality he\u2019s not willing to wave his hand in the air just yet and say \u2018pick me\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, Stewart views the green-and-gold jersey as an absolute honour. But with St George Illawarra trying to keep away from the wooden spoon his focus is on the remaining four matches of the regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s eyeing off the Wests Tigers, Bulldogs, Sea Eagles and Eels to grab some more wins.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still he says he\u2019s feeling the love from his new head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDeano pumps a lot of confidence into me, into all of us, and we all feel that,\u201d Stewart told NRL.com.<\/p>\n
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Dragons v Sharks – Round 23, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI can just go out there and do what I do knowing he\u2019s got my back.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s pretty special. I\u2019m proud of what I\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m playing on the edge now after playing in the middle last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeano\u2019s put me on the edge \u2013 it was one of the first calls he made when he came in (replacing Shane Flanagan) and I feel like I defend well there.”<\/p>\n
Stewart played 80 minutes on the left edge in the upset 24-16 win over the Sharks at Kogarah on Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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From the field: Hamish Stewart<\/p>\n
He laid on a try for Tyrell Sloan with a peach of a pass and scored a spectacular four-pointer of his own, soaring above two Sharks defenders like a centre to collect a Kyle Flanagan kick and score his fourth of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His agility and ability across a couple of positions is why Young sees a bright future for the 21-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a special talent and it wouldn\u2019t shock me if Kevvie Walters picks him in the Australian team at the end of the year, he\u2019s that good,\u201d Young said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(Stewart) is a bloke that can play edge back row and middle just as good with his skill set\u2026 he\u2019s got a big future and it\u2019s going to be at the Dragons.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Little doubt Stewart is enjoying his second NRL season and his first under Young.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He and twins Ryan and Toby Couchman, Dylan Egan and Loko Pasifika-Tonga have played a lot of football alongside each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan Coachman rattled off 66 tackles in an 80-minute performance at lock, while twin Toby sat out due to concussion but will be back for Wests Tigers at CommBank Stadium in Round 24.<\/p>\n
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That is remarkable from Gutherson<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan… what can you say,\u201d Stewart said when asked about his teammate\u2019s defensive effort.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Matty (Feagai) went down he knew he wasn\u2019t coming off so he showed just how tough a fella he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all grew up playing together \u2013 me and the Couchies and Dyl (Egan) \u2013 we all came through the (Illawarra) Steelers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI played with Loko in Jersey Flegg (Under 21s) and SG Ball (Under 19s) so we\u2019re really connected as we\u2019ve been together for a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re all mates you want to work for each other and you know what they\u2019re going to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDeano has been consistent in picking and sticking with all of us boys, he\u2019s put his confidence in us.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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NRL Best Moments – Round 23, 2026<\/p>\n
They are repaying Young and exciting Red V fans at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the end of the local derby win over the Sharks, the Kogarah crowd broke out in a chorus of \u2018When the Saints Go Marching In\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was singing out there one day (as a fan) so it\u2019s a pretty surreal moment being on the field and hearing it,\u201d Stewart said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing we had the game wrapped up, getting around the boys, it was very special as we haven\u2019t had many games like that. It was really a nice feeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Hamish Stewart is highly appreciative of the support from Dragons coach Dean Young about him being Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-564831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}