It took just a day for Clint Gutherson to show St George Illawarra Dragons what an asset he will be for the Red V.
Gutherson showed his new team-mates his supreme fitness, finishing first past the post to win the challenging Mount Keira time-trial run, on his first day of preseason training.
Later on Friday Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan told the assembled media at WIN Stadium of Gutherson’s achievement, adding the former Parramatta Eels skipper would play fullback for St George Illawarra in 2025.
Flanagan said the man they call King Gutho, as well as fellow new recruit Damien Cook, were also in the running to be the Dragons new captain, but he added the call on a new captain won’t be made for at least a month
The Dragons coach however opened up on a range of other issues, including the ‘unhappy marriage’ with departed former skipper Ben Hunt and what positions the Dragons were still looking to find players for ahead of the start of the new NRL season.
He admitted it was disheartening that Hunt and new Eels centre Zac Lomax had nothing good to say about their former club.
“Without a doubt,” Flanagan said when asked if the players’ reaction was disheartening.
“We made a decision early on with Zac that we wanted to move on and he wanted to move on, and he had a great season, played Origin and played for Australia and represented this club really well during his time.
“We all know the situation with Ben…..I can’t change that, I’m not going to worry about it. I just got to make sure we look forward and the club does well next year.
“These things happen in footy, players move clubs.”
Flanagan conceded though he was disappointed with how things ended with Hunt, after the club and the player recently reached an agreement to terminate the final year of his contract.
“It’s finished now, we needed to bring it to a head. He will move on and we will move on.
“I worked closely with Ben last year and I had many meetings with him and understood where he was at. It just wasn’t a happy marriage in the end and we just needed to move on.
“I wish Ben all the best. We never had an argument the whole period of time he was here, we got on well.
“Some marriages work and some don’t, we’ve just moved on and Ben will as well.”
As for who will replace Hunt as Dragons skipper, Flanagan said new recruits Gutherson and Cook were natural leaders.
“We’ll just let that unfold. It’s no use lumping someone with the captaincy too early. But they’re both natural leaders and they’ll do a good job and we’ll make a decision in a month or so,” he said.
Flanagan did confirm that the Dragons still had two spots to fill on their roster, with the priority being a six/seven and then hopefully a middle forward.
“We might leave that last spot open to next January, February, even going into the season,” he said.
“We saw last year Corey Allen did his ACL early and we needed to get someone else in, so it’s good to have that spot and we will just manage that as it goes along.”
He did however confirm the Dragons had all but secured the services of rugby Seven’s star Nathan Lawson.
“He’s got his last commitments with Rugby Australia in the sevens. He’s got one more tournament to go. I’d like to think when he comes back that touch wood, with no injuries that he’ll be here,” Flanagan said.
“He’s a footy player and he’ll adapt to rugby league pretty quickly. He loves rugby league………he went to school with Cam Murray, he was in a pretty good system there and the transition is not going to be that hard for him.
“He’ll play in the outside backs and I’m looking forward to him transitioning into an NRL player.”
Lawson could be joined in the outside backs by Tyrell Sloan, with Flanagan confirming Gutherson would be in the No 1 jersey next season.
“Gutho will be our fullback, unless something drastic happens in the pre-season,” the Dragons coach said.
“He’s got some versatility but I see him as our full back. That’s what I brought him here for…… his leadership, his intensity training. We did a run today, guess who came first.
“It was interesting when you see him walk through the gate and just watch and all the boys are pretty excited to have him on board.
“We did an exercise just this morning and Gutho gets out there and wins it, and every player knows, that’s why we got him here for, to set examples, set standards.
“It’s not only his ability on the field, it’s what he does here Monday to Friday. That’s a big selling point for me. I know what I needed from Monday to Friday and I needed Clint Gutherson and I needed Damien Cook for Monday to Friday business.
“[Gutho] blew everyone away this morning.
“At the back end of last year Clint was his own worst enemy, he was playing with a torn quad and some rib cartilage damage and he battled away because that’s the sort of person he is, he didn’t want to let his team down.
“They had Mitchell Moses out and Junior Paulo was out. All the leaders at Parramatta were out injured and Gutho didn’t want to be another one and he thought that he could battle through and, it was probably to his own detriment that people would say look, he’s old and he’s tired.
“No, he’s standing up for his club and fighting really hard. I know the Parramatta people appreciate that. And we’re just lucky to have him.
“He’ll be fine. He’s only 30-years-old.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of athletes at the back end of their career, the Paul Gallons, Luke Lewis’s, Michael Ennis and so on. And all those staff that I had there are here now at the Dragons.
“They’ll manage him and we’ll get the best out of him.”
Flanagan also expects Gutherson to act as a mentor for Tyrell Sloan and help him develop into a better player for the Dragons.
“I spoke to Tyrell…I could hear a little bit of excitement in his voice when we told him Gutho was coming, which was surprising,” he said.
“Tyrell hasn’t had that mentor in our back line that can teach him.
“Obviously he’s got coaches here and we try to coach him, but sometimes it’s great to hear it from another player.
“Tyrell’s going to play fullback, he’s going to a play wing, maybe even play centres for us. He’s a quality player, and only young so he’ll develop and hopefully with Gutho, he’ll develop a little bit quicker.”