May 22, 2026 — 7:30pmIt’s not by accident that the supporting beams around the Bruce Gordon Centre form a V, the iconic feature of the St George Illawarra jersey.Viewed from above, the $65 million building in North Wollongong is the same shape.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tours the Dragons’ new centre of excellence with club chairman Andrew Lancaster and prop Josh Kerr.AAPIMAGEMuch attention to detail has gone into the development of the Dragons’ new headquarters, which was officially opened on Friday at an event attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and club greats such as Craig Young and Matt Cooper.Now a famous team at its lowest ebb just needs to start winning games.Chairman Andrew Lancaster marked the occasion as a starting point and the beginning of a new chapter for the Dragons.Named after billionaire half-owner Bruce Gordon, the facility is one of the best in the NRL and provides a permanent base for a club whose senior executives were still working out of St George Leagues Club in Kogarah until a few months ago as the football team trained at WIN Stadium in Wollongong.The Bruce Gordon Centre. AAPIMAGE“The centre gives our club something it’s needed for a long time. A true home,” Lancaster said.But as he and caretaker coach Dean Young were quick to point out, its mere presence won’t deliver success.Anchored to the bottom of the ladder, the Dragons have not won a game all season and are on track to collect the joint venture’s first wooden spoon. Illawarra had not finished last since 1989 when they were in the competition while St George had not wound up there since 1938. New digs will be no quick fix.“First of all, it doesn’t guarantee anything,” Young said. “It’s a nice to have … from a connection side of things this is the first time that admin and the football department have worked under the same roof and that’s special, I think. As a whole club, we want to be connected and to have something like this, there is no excuse.”Cook speaks to referee Jarrod Cole about a controversial decision to deny him a try against Penrith on Sunday.Getty ImagesOne area in which it certainly can’t hurt is in the Dragons’ recruitment drive. They have signed Keaon Koloamatangi, Scott Drinkwater and Luke Metcalf for next season.Those players agreed to join on big-money deals and Young believes the new centre will also be a selling point.“If I’m a player on the outside and I’m looking at the young players that we’ve got, I’m looking at this facility and then I’m looking at Keaon, Drinkwater [and] Phillip Sami walking through the door … you can tell that the club’s improving, I’m sure it has an impact,” he said.The Dragons’ limited current stocks were reduced further on Friday as Albanese and other dignitaries took in their training session briefly.Jaydn Su’A was due to return from a three-match suspension on Saturday against the New Zealand Warriors but tore his calf on the eve of the game.The former Queensland forward was to fill in at centre because of a back injury keeping Moses Suli out and will be replaced by Hayden Buchanan, a member of the Dragons’ talented Gerringong gang.The Dragons showed fight against leaders Penrith at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday in a match that might have been closer had Damien Cook, playing in his 250th NRL game, not been wrongly denied a first-half try.Even Albanese brought up Cook being “robbed of an absolutely great try” in a speech at Friday’s opening in which he reflected on the Dragons’ world record 11 premierships in a row from 1956 to 1966 as well as his own past as a South Sydney board member during the Rabbitohs’ dark days when they were dismissed from the competition.The Cook incident aside, the Dragons made the Panthers kick from inside their own half nearly a dozen times in Magic Round, a promising sign.Young, though, was unhappy at errors as well as the 28-6 scoreline and won’t be satisfied unless there is a performance of similar grit against the second-placed Warriors at St George Venues Jubilee Stadium.“The Penrith performance is gone,” he said. “It’ll mean nothing unless we put in the same sort of effort against the Warriors, that’s the reality.“There were some things that we liked about it. There were signs of the team that we want to be and can be, but if we don’t back it up, it’s gone. That’s been my message to the players.”Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners