Dragons in dire straits but Frizell denies he wants out

Dragons star Tyson Frizell has denied seeking a release from the battling club or falling out with coach Paul McGregor as St George Illawarra's season circles the drain.

Speculation over Frizell's future sparked up prior to Penrith rattling up a 40-18 win over the Red V on Friday night, with suggestions the NSW and Kangaroos star is unhappy at the club and wants out of his contract.

Frizell is contracted until the end of 2020 and will be able to field rivals from November 1, but went out of his way to douse the rumours after the heavy loss.

"Obviously there have been some rumours circling around about my future at the club and for me nothing has changed," Frizell told reporters.

"I’m here until the end of 2020 and as long as I’m welcome at the club I’ll be here until then and all those rumours that have been tossed around are very false.

"I haven't had anything from anyone else or been spoken to or asked for a release, [I haven't] had people try to shop me around or anything like that on my behalf and from my manager we don't know what's going on and where those rumours have come from."

Frizell said he had addressed the speculation with his teammates before Friday's heavy loss and that the close bond he shares with McGregor is as strong as ever.

"I've got a really good relationship with Mary," Frizell said.

"If I was unhappy with anything or he knew I was unhappy at the club, he'd be the first one I'd speak to and he knows that... He knows there's nothing to it."

While Frizell's future may be one less thing to worry about the Dragons have ample headaches already, with this latest heavy loss leaving their season on life support.

McGregor confirmed that changes will be made to his 17 beyond the return of skipper Gareth Widdop from a dislocated shoulder and Zac Lomax from a broken thumb.

"There will be team changes for sure," McGregor said.

"We've got a couple of players coming back so that will make the team change and certainly there will be a couple of other spots to change as well."

With the Dragons taking a 12-10 lead before halftime despite a mountain of early defence McGregor found more positives than last week's dismal loss to Canberra.

But several lackadaisical defensive lapses left the Dragons red-faced throughout the second half as McGregor bemoaned his team's lack of trust in each other.

"You can't do it for part of the time, you've got to do it for 80 minutes," he said.

"We're just not doing that.

"[There's] blokes just trying to do it on their own at times and come out of the system instead of staying in that trust alongside one another.

"We do good things at times and then we let ourselves down at other times, it's not good enough.

 "Like last week, it's getting to the point of the season where we need to win and we're not getting close."