Dragons captain Jared Robinson revealed that the team is returning to training with a fresh challenge in their minds after their historic premiership in 2016.

“We’ve been together as a playing group for a few years now, so we we’re really focused on winning a title together,” Robinson said.

“Now that we’ve done that we want to go one further with it and go back-to-back in grand finals.”

“No Mudgee Dragons side has ever won two premierships in a row, so we think it would be really special to be able to get that as well, all the boys are up for it.”

Robinson admits that other teams in the competition will be ready for them, and have recruited well in the off-season so far, but that psychology may be a key factor overall.

“When we play them there will be changes. Teams we play will be looking to knock us down one when we face them now.

“It’s kind of on them to take us down, so they have to come at us when we play against them.”

Robinson also hinted at a strong signing coming into the Mudgee side that will rival pick-ups like Chris Bamford for Orange CYMS and star player-coach Willie Heta from Newcastle for the Hawks.

“We’re fairly close and quite high up in talks at the moment with a bloke from Sydney that was actually a junior here and has been down in Sydney for a couple of years,” Robinson revealed.

“We’re in the closing stages, and we were hoping to have it done before the start of training, but it’s a bit hard to say at the moment.”

“The team will also look to the junior side for players, they’ve been in the final for the past two years so there’s players that can play for us week in and week out.”

Although the Mudgee Dragons are well equipped for the season, the Dragon’s League-tag side was unsure of its future.

However, the side will play on in 2017 and look to return to the semi-finals after a disappointing season last year, and Min Quayle will helm them as player-coach.