St George Illawarra have no timeline on Talatau Amone's return to the NRL despite a change in the five-eighth's court case meaning he is available to line up immediately.
The NRL stood Amone down in January after he was hit with charges over his alleged involvement in an attack on a tradesman at a worksite near Amone's Wollongong home in November.
The five-eighth faced up to 14 years in jail, meaning he triggered the NRL's stand-down policy that suspends players charged with crimes carrying a possible sentence of 11 or more years.
But Amone subsequently had his case downgraded from the district court to local court and his maximum jail term reduced to five years.
On March 7, the NRL approved his return to play but given the Dragons were set to name their team for round two that day, Griffin had little choice but to select Amone in reserve grade.
The 20-year-old lined up at five-eighth as the Dragons' NSW Cup side fell to a dominant Canterbury outfit 34-4 on Sunday.
At NRL level, Jayden Sullivan partnered Ben Hunt in the halves for the Dragons' first game of the season, a convincing 32-18 defeat of Gold Coast.
Amone was the first-choice five-eighth ahead of Sullivan for the majority of the 2022 season but isn't guaranteed to return to the NRL when the Dragons face Brisbane next weekend.
"There's no urgency," Griffin said when asked about the Tongan international's return date.
"He's obviously had something to deal with outside of football, so it was important that he got a full game (in NSW Cup) under his belt today.
"I obviously saw him during the week when I broke the news to him. There was obviously a lot of relief and he was happy and had a bit of a spring in his step all week."
Hunt does not foresee chemistry issues if Amone is thrust back into the action at short notice later in the season.
"We've all been training together all pre-season, swapping in and out," the Dragons captain said.
"Our structures don't change depending on who is in there. I don't think it'll be a big change."
