St George-Illawarra coach Paul McGregor is urging disillusioned Dragons fans to accept Brett Morris's departure and move on.
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Morris' defection to Canterbury to play with twin brother Josh, his long-time NSW and Australian teammate, has caused considerable angst among fans of the famous Red V.
Some have even threatened to give up their club memberships in protest.
McGregor, though, said it hurt him just as much to see the tryscoring ace leave the Dragons after eight impressive years at the club.
"It makes me sad because Brett has been a long time friend and I've known Brett since he's been a young boy and I've coached Brett and been his strength and conditioner before," McGregor said.
"We lived probably about 10 houses apart, so it's never good.
"I drove past his house the other day and saw him in his Bulldogs gear and it's never nice.
"But it's reality; it's rugby league, it's professional sport and I think we've all got to move on from it."
McGregor said he empathised and understood why some of the Dragons' faithful were disgruntled.
"But we didn't want Brett to go. Brett wanted to go," he said.
"Brett thought his best future was with his brother and with a different club.
"No one will replace Brett but someone will play in his jumper and someone will do the club proud and that's important.
"So we've just got to let that go."
One of the players in line to replace Morris is Dubbo's own Charly Runciman, who has made a big impression from his limited opportunities in the top grade to date.
Runciman has so far played 10 games in the top grade, and despite being a fullback through his junior days the hierachy at the Dragons have used him predominantly in the centres or on the wing, making him an obvious choice to slot straight into the role vacated by Morris.
The Dragons have missed the past three finals series since winning the premiership under supercoach Wayne Bennett in 2011 and skipper Ben Creagh admits the side's pack didn't aim up for much of 2014.
"There was a fair bit of criticism directed at the forward pack early in the season and a lot of it was warranted, I thought," Creagh said.
"I think we lost seven games in a row there and the opposition forward packs were putting it over us.
"But the second half of the season I thought we turned that around. We gained a lot of confidence from that."
