It's a change in mindset for the 21-year-old, whose spot at the back has been hotly discussed despite featuring there in all but one game last season. It followed a far bumpier ride through 2022, one that saw him twice dropped from first grade under coach Anthony Griffin.

Current coach Shane Flanagan has been upfront about the areas the precociously talented youngster needs to improve in, and he appeared to have run out of patience when he shifted Sloan to the wing at halftime of the Dragons loss to Newcastle.

It fed reports early in the week that Zac Lomax, who was the Dragons best on the wet night in Newcastle after shifting to the back, would be named in the No.1 jumper for the Tigers clash.

It didn't come to fruition, with Flanagan sticking with Sloan and making it clear he didn't need to produce something special to hold onto the jumper.

"The conversation we had was that it was best for the team to put Loey at the back [against Newcastle]," Sloan said.

"We knew what Newcastle were going to be like, especially in those conditions. There was some other stuff there as a team where we put ourselves under pressure there with some fourth and fifth tackle penalties and we ended up defending our line.

"We'll defend our line, but it came down to the last tackle and that's on me, I put my hand up for that. I missed my assignment.

"Flanno's Flanno, he's not afraid to make decisions. He tells me straight how it is and I respect him for that. It makes me a better player and makes the team a lot better.

"If he feels like Zac's doing a better job, or I'm doing a better job, that's who's going to be at the back. In the end, it's what's best for the team."

Sloan responded with an under-the-radar 10 carries and try assist, with eight tackles and an important four kick defusals without error, against the Tigers.

Crucially, the performance eschewed the high-risk plays he'd have admittedly felt tempted to chase in an effort to bounce back from a poor performance in the past.

"That's just me doing my job," Sloan said.

"I wasn't involved in any big plays, I just felt like I did my job. I wasn't perfect, but there were some moments there where I just cleaned up the ball and that's what I have to do.

It was more about just cleaning up the kicks at the back and being confident there, helping Liddsy (Jacob Liddle) out when he's a bit tired there at hooker and making sure we're finishing our sets in the corner.

"It's not always [about] the big play. I do a lot of stuff off the ball for the team and some of that's not statistic, it's just going to help our team. If I continue to do that, the attack will come, it always does.

"I think it's just being a bit more mature. I'm still probably not perfect at it, I do love a big play, I love scoring tries, but it is something I've worked on."

It's a message Flanagan has looked to hammer home to his entire playing group, one that's been wildly inconsistent and heads into Friday's clash with the Warriors in Wollongong looking to notch consecutive wins for the first time this season.

"It's something we've been inconsistent with, not being able to get to two on the trot," Sloan said.

"It was a bit of a sloppy win [last week], but I think that's just where we're at at the moment. It doesn't matter how you win as long as you win.

"Flanno always says to us, if we can just continue to pump sets in the teams, hopefully they'll break first. It's not always the big play that does that.

"If you just stick to the structure in the game plan, it'll come. That's the mentality we had [last week], just continue to pump sets into them and try and get a result.

"It's something this team is building on, that resilience. We want to continue to work off the back of it and hopefully get two on the trot."