Firman Re-signs With Dragons Until 2005

Dragons halfback and NRL rookie Brett Firman today re-signed with St George Illawarra until the end of the 2005 season.

Firman, 21 last month, has come of age as a player in recent weeks and the club was pleased to take up the one-year option on his 2003 contract and extend it a further season.

Dragons Chief Executive Officer Peter Doust said: ”I'm very pleased for the club to see Brett Firman will continue his development under the guidance of coach Nathan Brown and alongside five-eighth Trent Barrett when he returns from injury.”

The Temora-born Firman, who missed last season with a shoulder reconstruction, said he had enjoyed his first season with the Dragons so far and was happy to finalise the new contract because he wanted to stay with the club.

“The Dragons have great potential and offer me an excellent opportunity to fulfill my dreams in the NRL,” he said.

“I have really enjoyed myself here so far and have learnt a lot from the coaching staff, so I really wanted to stay. I'm glad it has all worked out.”

Firman said the Dragons disappointing 36-16 loss to the Cowboys three weeks ago had actually helped him to turn his game around to produce the outstanding form he showed against Newcastle and Souths in the past two weeks.

“The following week we had a bye and I had a big hard think about where I was going during that time off,” Firman said. “I knew I had to step into another gear.

“Instead of having time off I trained really hard during the bye week and it paid off. The Cowboys game was a wake-up call, individually and as a team. It showed we had to wake up to ourselves and stop thinking we were good. “

In other news, skipper Lance Thompson will have a bone scan on a foot injury this afternoon, while lock John Cross is in doubt for Saturday's match against Manly with a rib cartilage injury.