Hess has been disappointing the last two years. Lost his spot in the cowboys starting side and been relegated to the bench. He has bulked up during that period and it severely effected his gas tank as well as lateral movement when in defence. However that being said, he’s trained the house down this off season and looks shredded as. Definitely dropped a fair bit of weight. I’m not sure he wins back his starting 80 minute spot from round 1 though. Feel like he’ll come off the bench and rotate through the edge and middle. It’s a no from me purely because his role is up in the air, but I’m predicting him to have a much improved season.
Merrin is a wait and see over trials. Coming back from Super league and getting on in age. Used to be a supercoach beast but I don’t think he plays 80 in this dragons side, so I’m bypassing for now. If he’s playing 80 during trials he comes straight into my side at that price.