St George Illawarra Dragons prop Jack Stockwell admits the team’s slow start proved costly in the 36-20 loss to the Brisbane Broncos at WIN Stadium, Wollongong on Friday.
The Under 20s NSW Blues State of Origin representative found that the Red V were sluggish to fire up and is certain Head Coach Steve Price will be focusing on improving this during training.
The 22-year-old was thrilled to included in the starting line-up after recovering from a hamstring injury and hopes to hold the position in the coming rounds.
“The body is holding up okay, I have a few bumps and bruises but other than that it’s good to be back in first-grade playing some good footy,” said Stockwell.
“I had a hamstring injury but I came back in the Charity Shield match so I’ve played two games this season.
“It was a nice surprise that Pricey showed a bit of faith in me and put me back in the side straight away.
“I was really happy to hear that I’d be in the starting side for this game, it’s just up to me to get the job done and prove why I should be here.
“We have a slightly smaller pack than most of the other teams in the competition this season and I think that helps us as the game speeds up.
“We have a lot of mobile forwards and I think they work well for our style of attack and play.
“I think our speediness and mobility showed in the first three rounds of the comp and we were just unlucky tonight, some things didn’t work.
“We just have to work together this week and come out firing against the Rabbitohs next week.
“There were a few errors in the game, but both we made mistakes and it was a bit of a back and forth game.
“We have good defence, we just need to work on speeding up our starts and not letting the opposition get the jump on us in the opening minutes.
“My plan is to hold on to the starting spot in the side for the next few weeks and play as well as I can throughout this season.”
