St George Illawarra Dragons Captain Ben Hunt (15th February, 2024)

Ben Hunt, the captain of the St. George's Yellow Water Dragons, discusses the upcoming 2024 NRL season. He mentions the team's training and their excitement for the trials. Zach Lomax will be the goal-kicker for the season. Kyle Flanagan has brought a positive energy to the team. The team has also welcomed Tom Eisenhuth and Ray Fertala-Mariner. They are preparing to face the West Tigers and are expecting a challenge from Benji Marshall, who is now the Tigers' head coach. Ben Hunt enjoys playing in central New South Wales and looks forward to the passionate crowds. Listeners have a chance to win tickets to the match. You're on Zoo's Breakfast! With the NRL's pre-season challenge match between the St. George's Yellow Water Dragons and the West Tigers up and mudgy later this month, it would be inappropriate not to get the Dragons' captain Ben Hunt on for a chat. Morning, mate. Cheers for your time. Yeah, good morning. Thank you very much for having me on. How's the upcoming 2024 season looking from a captain's perspective? Are you solid in the training you've been doing during the off-season? Yeah, it's been good, mate. It's a very good time of year. Everyone's working really hard. You haven't won or lost any games yet, so everyone's really excited and eager to get stuck into trials and see where everyone's at. I mean, yes, I'm sure you've got your full energy at the start of the year. Have you put Zach Lomax up to nail most of the conversions over the post for another season? Yeah, mate. He'll be leading us with the goal-kicking. He's an excellent striker at the ball, Zach. He kind of went through a couple of tough periods here and there last year, but now we've got full faith in him to be our kicker. And how's it going with Kyle Flanagan? I mean, it's the boss's son joining the fold. Did he bring a lot of experience and flying hours to the half-back position? He's brought a real buzz into our halves. He's a really good kid, Kyle. He trains one of the halves that we've got here. He's a really good trainer. He does all the little things really well. Yeah, he's just brought a bit of breath of fresh air to those halves. As well as Kyle, you've received quite a reinforcement to the team in the shape of Tom Eisenhuth and Ray Fertala-Mariner. What have they been like during off-season training in the new squad? Yeah, Tom's been excellent. He obviously came out of Melbourne being in a real good system down there. He knows all the tricks of the trade and he's a really hard-working guy, Tom. Ray's only been here for a bit over a week now. He's been a bit of rehab. He's just had a tight hemming and stuff like that. We're just easing him back in, but he's a really big unit and I think he's going to be really good for us. With this new squad with a bunch of new faces in it, when you take on the Tigers later this month, are you really preparing to expect the unexpected when it comes to Benji's fresh training tactics as the head coach now? Yeah, a little bit. I think it's really exciting for the Tigers. They've got Benji in there. He's going to bring a lot of youth and obviously a lot of experience. He's played the game for a long time and at the top level. I think he's going to be excellent for them. So I'm pretty excited and eager to get out there and have a game against them and see what they come up with. Competition to the game aside, in your years in the league, is it always a sweet experience heading out into central New South Wales to play some footy? Yeah, I love it, mate. I've been down there since 2018 when I first came here and I really look forward to it every time I get the opportunity to go out. I'm a country boy myself and I'm from Queensland and I can't wait to get out there and spend some time in the town and have a look around. Yeah, it's one of the ones I really enjoy. Fit right in. Do the crowds fire up? Yeah, they do, mate. We always get a wonderful crowd out there. Again, I come from the bush and everyone's really passionate about their rugby league from the bush. It doesn't matter where you come and play, you go to those little towns, they always fire up and get behind their teams. Thanks for your time, mate. Much appreciated. Good luck against the Tigers. No worries. Thank you. There's Dragons captain Ben Hunt ahead of them playing against the Tigers for a pre-season challenge up at Glenwillow Stadium in Mudgee on the 24th of February. You can get tickets at 123ticks. However, we're always going to be giving them away for the rest of the week. So if you just listen throughout Zoo FM Breakfast, you can score yourself a double pass exclusively here. You're on Zoo Breakfast.