LUKE KEARY says Catalans Dragons are “hurting a lot” internally over their difficult season and he admits that several factors have led to the team struggling badly on the field.
Ahead of round 16 Catalans had only won five of their 15 games in 2025, and a month ago coach Steve McNamara was sacked.
Keary, who joined the French club from the Sydney Roosters at the end of last year, concedes that many things have gone wrong for the Dragons this season but he insists the players can turn things around.
“It’s been a bit of everything,” Keary told League Express.
“We’ve gone through different phases throughout the year. The first period we just started slow; we had two games in England. We didn’t perform well in our first game at home but then we dropped those in England, so we dropped the first three, which was tough.
“But we were still trying to find ourselves. We were a very new team, with a lot of new players. We missed Sam [Tomkins] those first couple of weeks, we had a few positional changes, Benny Garcia moved to hooker. So we were trying to figure out a few different things.
“And then we went on a run – we won seven from eight games – we actually found some good form. We had an easier draw in the Challenge Cup, so we were setting our sights for that Hull KR semi-final. We won a lot of games coming into that disappointing Magic Weekend game (against Leigh) but we were in the game.
“But we fell off a cliff after Magic Weekend. That’s partly because we really missed Sam. Everyone in Super League knows the type of player he is. He’s the glue in our team.
“The French boys really respect him a lot, the English boys and all the Australian boys do too. He was the main voice for us in the pre-season too.
“He made an impact straightaway against Leigh with the confidence he gave everyone else. Then with Steve departing it was another change for us.
“We’ve been hurting a lot. It’s one of the toughest periods I’ve gone through as a footy player. But I have great belief in the group and we’ve stuck together. It’s been tough but we’ll come through the other end and get a few wins and a positive end to the season.”
McNamara departed at the end of May and Keary concedes it was disappointing to see him go.
“I was really impressed with him,” the halfback said.
“I knew he’d been there a long time and had had a lot of success with the Dragons. I thought he was brilliant. A lot of things that happened were probably out of his control too, this season and maybe the back end of last season. So it was disappointing to see him go. I’d come over with the thought of him being the coach. It’s disappointing but I reckon once the dust settles he’ll look back with really fond memories of what he achieved here.
“It was really good to get to know him and I’m sure he’ll pop up again in a head coaching role, if not here in the Super League or in Australia somewhere.”
Until this year Keary had spent his entire career in the NRL with Souths and the Roosters. The 33-year-old admits this season has been an “eye-opener” for him.
“Coming over I had really high expectations at Catalans,” he said.
“The club’s had some success; but they had a pretty tough back end of the year last year. I reckon I’ll sit down at the of the year and there’s a lot that’s gone on. It’s been tough, but I’ve learned a heap.
“I’ve come from the Roosters and the only two clubs I’ve played for are the Roosters and Souths, these two very big clubs in Sydney, right in the heartland of footy. They’re really successful clubs and stable on and off the field. Not that the Catalans aren’t, but it’s just been a different experience for me.
“It’s been a challenge but we’ve still got time left this year. It’s been an eye-opener for me and I’ve learnt a lot about myself and a lot about footy.
“It’s been tough, but when I sit down at the end of the year I hope it will have been really rewarding with the things I’ve learned.”