St George Illawarra’s three try hero Joel Thompson says the Dragons couldn’t care less about pre-season predictions which had the Saints challenging for the wooden spoon.

The Dragons began their season in style with a huge win over the Penrith Panthers at Kogarah last weekend where Thompson bagged a hat-trick.

“We had the belief here, everyone was writing us off,” Thompson said.

“Everywhere you looked, everyone had us at the bottom of the table.

“But we know what we have here as a group and the quality of players we have here.

“So we need to create that belief and put in performances like that. We need to build from last week.”

In what could be a distraction to the resurgent Dragons, a number of players are off contract and in negotiations with the club including star Josh Dugan.

“I’m not too sure, he keeps it all pretty close to himself,” Thompson added.

“He’ll decide what’s best for him going forward and whatever he does, we back him 100 per cent.”

The Dragons play Parramatta on Sunday night in Wollongong.