St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor isn’t concerned incoming half Ben Hunt has been dropped from the Brisbane Broncos side in favour of Kodi Nikorima.

Hunt will link with the Dragons in 2018 on a six-year, $6 million deal but won’t be playing NRL anytime soon with Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett preferring Nikorima and Anthony Milford in the halves.

McGregor said Hunt would be invaluable for the Saints moving forward.\

“I’ve got no doubts at all,” McGregor said.

“Ben’s certainly a good acquisition for our club in 2018. He is playing with the Broncos in 2017 so he’s not going to help us this year but going forward he’s definitely a player we think will take the club in a good direction.

“I watch a lot of footy and certainly when I’ve seen Ben Hunt play, up until his injury, he was playing really well. I saw the game he played against the Warriors [two weeks ago] and I thought he played really well there.

“We’ve seen this year with the players that have come to our club in Cameron McInnes and Paul Vaughan – they didn’t finish in first grade last year and they’re playing the best footy of their careers. I’ve got no doubt when Ben does come into our environment he’ll play really good footy.”