‘Heartbroken’ Dufty wants to stay in Red V: “All I ever wanted was to play for St George”

Matt Dufty made a resounding Dragons statement on Thursday evening as he dismantled the Broncos at Kogarah; all the “heartbroken” star wants is to stay in the Red V beyond 2021, despite coach Anthony Griffin planning otherwise.

Two weeks ago, Griffin laid out a decree: Matt Dufty is not the future of the St George Illawarra Dragons. The club would, Hook confirmed, be looking elsewhere for their 2022 number one.

As The Sporting Base understands, the Red V speedster is looking for a wealthy NRL contract north of $600k a year heading into 2022 and beyond. The issue Hook is facing is that St George Illawarra’s salary cap is already “quite tight” for next season. One solution, the Dragons coach has tipped, is to pull up local juniors to play the part, in an effort to keep big-money stars in other positions.

“It’s part of our succession planning going forward,” Griffin said after dropping the Dufty bombshell. He also added that “[the Dragons] have got some great young kids coming through in Cody Ramsey and (Tyrell) Sloane and those types of guys.”

On Thursday night, Matt Dufty dished up his response.

First, it was an explosive on-field performance. The 25-year-old injected himself in the Red V’s attack time and again, creating a club record-equally five tries, and scoring two more in the 52-24 rampage.

The pacey fullback caused Brisbane headaches all night. Four times he put teammates through holes, and once he even splintered the maroon and white defensive line himself. It was an outrageous 80-minute performance, and one that had the Dragons faithful in raptures.

Then Dufty echoed what many already believed: “I want to stay.”

“All I ever wanted to do was play for St George,” the Penshurst junior said, before adding: “[To hear the news], it was heartbreaking. I’ve been super upset the last few weeks… I just wanted to come out here [Kogarah] and do the fans proud.”

“I owe it to them to finish off the season strong [either way].”

Matt Dufty had a hand in seven tries against the Brisbane Broncos.

It seems the Dragons fanbase feels the same way, too.

St George Illawarra faithful has taken to social media in recent weeks, voicing their displeasure, almost as one, over the club’s choice to dish off Dufty at the end of the year.

Just this week, ahead of the team’s Brisbane battle at Kogarah, Dragons fans took matters into their own fans too, in a bid to have their voice be heard by the Saints powerbrokers. First started on Facebook, the fans have launched a change.org petition — “Re-sign Dufty” — which netted more than 2,000 signatures in the first few hours of being published.

At publication, the Matt Dufty petition has 4,601 signatures.

Despite all that, Anthony Griffin has refused to budge from his original stance; the Dragons helmsman was adamant Dufty has no place in the Red V beyond the end of his current contract, and that he wants to give the 25-year-old as much time as possible to find another club.

“Yeah I can understand that,” Griffin said to media after he was asked about Dragons fans’ growing demands to keep Matt Dufty beyond his expiring NRL contract.

“There are a lot of things that go into that. It is not about one game or a performance.

“We need to enjoy tonight. Tonight was a really good performance. Matt Dufty, Ben Hunt, across the line, de Belin, the forward pack, we were very good. It was a really good performance by a lot of people.

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“Dufty’s been out for a while but he had a really good game. He made the most of opportunities.”

Hook has doubled down on his plan to move on from Matt Dufty.

Griffin admitted it was a hard decision to make for the club.

“To get to this level and have longevity at a club, it’s a real achievement and Matt’s done a great job for the club. He’s a really good person,” he said.

“I’m a big believer in everything happens for a reason. At this level, you get a lot of knocks at the time, but in the end, the knocks turn out to be opportunities. I’m sure this is an opportunity for Matt to continue his career. It’s about building our list for 2022.

“We wish him all the best but he’s still got a big role to play this year.”

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