Fresh off the news that two of St George Illawarra Dragons brightest young stars got involved in a fight during a fan attended open training session their CEO has spoken out to try and set the record straight and offer some calm on the situation.
It was reported earlier that Zac Lomax, 23, and Junior Amone, 20, who are two of the Dragons key players for the present and the future got into an altercation at the fan attended session.
The Dragons had taken their pre-season on the road inviting fans to come and watch them, with some young fans even getting a chance to engage with the players in drills as seen in a tweet on the club’s social media.
The presence of youngsters didn’t stop Lomax and Amone getting into it though with Lomax reportedly taking exception to a hit from the Tongan World Cup representative, which triggered a melee as recorded and posted online by the Red V Podcast.
Zac Lomax and Junior Amone had to be separated after Zac took exception to a big hit on the Dragons 3 day camp at Mollymook. Altercations like this are normal and a good sign that players are digging deep into their pre season training! pic.twitter.com/shTwvZLk5h
— Red V Podcast (@RedVPodcast1) December 16, 2022
It’s reported by WA Today that the incident occurred on Wednesday but the story has broken now and club Chief Executive Ryan Webb spoke to the Herald to clear everything up.
“I was there, I watched the session, and I’d put it down to nothing more than the boys showing some competitive fire, which is what you want to see from the boys, if I’m being honest,” Webb told the Herald, per WA Today.
“It bubbled over, two young guys got a bit over-zealous, everyone separated them, they kept training for another half hour and everyone was mates afterwards.”
St George can ill afford for the team to have splits in the camp having not made the play-offs since 2018 despite the impressive performances of star player Ben Hunt.
Hunt, now heading into his age 33 season, may not have many more opportunities to secure the title with the Red V meaning that Lomax and Amone are set to be the stars of the future with the latter having already represented Tonga at the recent World Cup and Lomax constantly being tipped for an Origin spot.
Chief Executive Webb clarified on the state of the club: “I actually can’t recall seeing this place so happy – it’s the complete opposite to being an unhappy camp.”
The Dragons won’t kick off the season till week two having been granted the bye in week one, due to the addition of the Dolphins as the league’s 17th team.
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