St George Illawarra Tyson Frizell says a rocket from coach Paul McGregor after his side's Magic Round loss to the Warriors last week should ensure the Dragons fire at Glen Willow on Sunday.
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The Red V arrives in Mudgee this week ahead of Sunday's round 10 clash with the Knights but they do so on the back a consecutive losses, the latest 26-18 against New Zealand after leading the Warriors at Suncorp Stadium.
Frizell, a lock to feature in Brad Fitttler's NSW Blues side for State of Origin one on June 5, says last week's defeat was a tough one to swallow and McGregor certainly let the playing group know similarly flat performance at Glen Willow on Sunday afternoon won't be acceptable.
"We got a kick up the arse," Frizell told NRL.com on Wednesday.
St George Illawarra led the Warriors 18-6 before the New Zealand boys raced in 20 unanswered second-half points.
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The Dragons lost 32-18 against Parramatta the week prior, too, in similar circumstances.
"Everyone was disappointed on the weekend after our second half performance," Frizell continued.
"It happened the week before and can let that slide but it's happened two weeks in a row and we'll be doing everything we can to ensure it doesn't happen again.
"We've got players capable of playing NRL, and we've showed that in the past. there's no excuses for us. It's all on the playing group to turn it around."
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... it's happened two weeks in a row and we'll be doing everything we can to ensure it doesn't happen again.
- Tyson Frizell on the Dragons blowing leads in their last two games.
Winger Jordan Pereira, enjoying a break-out season on the Dragons' left flank, believes his side turning around its fortunes as "an easy fix".,
"I think the one per cent efforts weren't there," Pereira dded.
"I don't know if it's an attitude thing, but it's definitely an easy fix."
St George Illawarra take on Newcastle from 2pm on Sunday at Glen Willow, the Knights trekking to Mudgee on the back of a confidence-boosting 22-10 victory over the Bulldogs, also in Brisbane.
DRAGONS: 1 Matthew Dufty, 2 Jordan Pereira, 3 Zac Lomax, 4 Timoteo Lafai, 5 Mikaele Ravalawa, 6 Jai Field, 7 Ben Hunt, 8 James Graham, 9 Cameron McInnes, 10 Paul Vaughan, 11 Tyson Frizell, 12 Tariq Sims, 13 Blake Lawrie; Bench: 14 Jeremy Latimore, 15 Euan Aitken, 16 Jacob Host, 17 Luciano Leilua.
KNIGHTS: 1 Kalyn Ponga, 2 Edrick Lee, 3 Hymel Hunt, 4 Jesse Ramien, 5 Shaun Kenny-Dowall, 6 Connor Watson, 7 Mitchell Pearce, 8 David Klemmer, 9 Danny Levi, 10 Daniel Saifiti, 11 Lachlan Fitzgibbon, 12 Mitchell Barnett, 13 Tim Glasby; Bench: 14 Kurt Mann, 15 Herman Ese'ese, 16 James Gavet, 17 Sione Mata'utia.
