St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor has turned to two of the Dragons' fiercest competitors to help restore pride and passion to the club.

McGregor has added recently retired playing duo Ben Hornby and Dean Young to his full-time coaching staff as he looks to take the club back to the finals.

It is the first time Hornby or Young have worked full-time with the NRL squad, having both spent their post-playing career days working with St George and Illawarra's respective under-18 teams before co-coaching St George Illawarra's under-20s last year.

"Mary [McGregor] knows he can trust us and he knows we have the club running through us," Hornby said. "We have been here for a long time. We want to see the club do well. We're young and keen to get involved and improve. All those things played a part.

"[Recent finishes] is not where we want to be sitting. This is not where we belong. We belong further up the table. We are working hard to get ourselves back up there. We're doing everything in our power to make sure we get back up there."

They are joined as assistants by experienced mentor Ian Millward. Millward is the club's skills coach while Young is forward coach.

Hornby – who will coach the under-20s alone this season – is the club's edge defence coach, which has been an area of pre-season focus.

The Dragons have revamped the way their wingers, centres, halves and back-rowers defend in a bid to stem the flow of points. Tyson Frizell is expected to partner Joel Thompson on a back-row edge despite spending the bulk of his two-year stint at the Dragons in the middle.

"We've worked hard on it," Hornby said. "We've come up with a system which we think will work. At the end of the day it's about blokes making good decisions and getting themselves in good positions.

"Working hard, talking and communicating and putting ourselves in a good position to start with so we can keep ourselves where we want to be.

"We have not settled on a side. Everyone is getting a shot in every position."

Young has already noticed a different vibe among the playing group.

"That's improved," Young said. "There's no two ways about it. I've played in some footy teams who are really close together and teams who are detached. You can't fake being close. I can see them bonding closer and closer each week.

"The facilities have been pretty poor over the past few years so Mary has done a great job fixing them. It's made this place a place where people want to drive through the gate and turn up for work every day."

Young nominated forwards Frizell, Jack de Belin and new recruit Heath L'Estrange as having impressed during pre-season. While Hornby has aspirations to become an NRL coach, Young isn't as certain.

"The last couple of years of playing I realised I wanted to be a coach," he said. "I just wasn't sure what sort of coach I wanted to be. I don't know if I want to be a head coach, an assistant coach or a specialist coach. I'm working it all out. [When Mary asked me to join the staff] I went away and had a think about it to make sure I felt confident in delivering what Mary wanted and I'm here.

"I played with some of these players so I had to think about that."

Meanwhile, St George Illawarra have reinstated hooker Craig Garvey on an "adjusted contract". Garvey was found guilty of an assault in September.