Anthony Griffin insists the pressure mounting on him is not a distraction for St George Illawarra's players, or an extra weight on his own shoulders, with his job as an NRL coach on the line.
The Dragons took another hit on Friday with five-eighth Jayden Sullivan ruled out of Saturday's clash with the Dolphins with a minor shoulder injury. Talatau Amone has been recalled.
In better news for the club, Jack de Belin is expected to make his long-awaited return from a calf injury from the bench in Wollongong.
The Dragons have lost two of their opening three games, and the situation feels particularly pressing given their 40-8 flogging at home to Cronulla last week.
Captain Ben Hunt admitted afterwards he felt sorry for his coach, who was told in the pre-season the club were canvassing their options for possible replacements next year.
But regardless, Griffin was adamant when asked if he had to address players to ensure the situation does not snowball.
"Not really. We just had a bad performance which we weren't happy with," he said.
"Cronulla probably had their best performance of the year and they were too good for us.
"We had a really good week of training this week, and we are looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.
"The short turnaround is a benefit for us, it has been a short week."
Griffin also disagreed with comments from halfback Moses Mbye this week that the team's year was already at a crossroads.
The coach insisted he had not been impacted by suggestions he is a "dead man walking" in the final year of his contract.
"It doesn't weigh on me at all. It's got nothing to do with me," he said.
"At some stage in the season you have one or two real stinkers - and we had one last week.
"You have two or three good games where you don't know where they came from either. There is no panic, it's just about getting back to what we do."
Griffin rejected concerns over the Dragons' culture, after Moses Suli claimed this week he did not want to join the club when he moved in late 2021.
Suli said on Wednesday his situation was similar to that of forward Viliami Fifita, who left Manly to join the Dragons this week.
"It's not a worry. We didn't arrest him. We didn't force him to come here," Griffin said.
"They are grown men who make decisions.
"My dealings with them have been nothing but positive about why they want to come here. It's a free world, they wanted to come here, they are here.
"I don't think (Suli) would do something he doesn't want to do. He always has a smile on his face and he played his best football here last year."
