"I have never said that,'' McGregor said during an interview on Friday in which the 46-year-old revealed he had gone to bed at 12.10am the night before and woke at 4.40am to finish preparing video footage and tip sheets for the Dragons players before Saturday's match against North Queensland at WIN Jubilee Oval.

St George Illawarra officials are understood to have drawn up a list headed by Newcastle's Wayne Bennett that includes virtually anyone with NRL coaching experience that may be available, such as Tim Sheens, Neil Henry and Brian Smith, and have begun assessing the potential candidates.

No one has yet approached McGregor but if the Dragons can win eight of their 14 matches under his control it would be almost impossible for the club to ignore the claims of a junior product who co-captained St George Illawarra to a grand final in the inaugural year of the joint venture and has done a lengthy apprenticeship in the local competition and lower grades.

"It's not up to me to make up my mind about whether I want the job or not," McGregor said. "I will just worry about what I can control so I am happy just to let it roll at the moment and play my role within the football club for now."

Those who know McGregor well liken the former Test centre's unwillingness to publicly declare his coaching ambitions to his reluctance to accept annual approaches from the Steelers to leave his mates in the local Illawarra competition and play at the elite level until the age of 22.

After belatedly signing on just weeks before the 1991 premiership began, McGregor played his only reserve grade match before being promoted by Illawarra coach Graham Murray and was chosen that season to play in the City-Country match.

"I had never been in a gym in my life so I was underprepared physically and didn't want to put myself in a position where I might fail," he recalls.

After a decade-long playing career for the Steelers and Dragons followed by a seven-year stint with the club as strength and conditioning coach, three premiership-winning seasons in charge of Wests Devils and two years with Illawarra Cutters, McGregor also took some convincing to become Steve Price's assistant at the start of this season.

When Price was sacked five weeks ago, McGregor again deliberated before agreeing to take over.

"Once I say yes to something I am fully committed," he said. "I just needed to take a few things into consideration – one was Steve and how comfortable he was, the situation with my family and I have a business with Shane Lee – the ex-footballer, not the cricketer – where we have 25 staff. I spoke to Steve and I spoke to my family and here I am today because I made that decision purely on what I thought I could bring to the playing group."

What McGregor has provided his players with is a new-found confidence, self-belief and enthusiasm that now has a team, which was running second last and considered by many to be too small, just one win out of the top eight after wins over Cronulla, Gold Coast and Melbourne, and an 18-14 loss against competition leaders Penrith after both teams scored three tries in their past four matches.

He has done that by working up to 16 hours per day and implementing changes to the way the Dragons prepare and play.

Off the field, the coaching staff now meet at 7am the day after a match to review the game together, whereas Price, McGregor and Craig Young were previously responsible for different areas.

On it, McGregor has switched Josh Dugan to right centre to overcome the loss of Dylan Farrell and accommodate Adam Quinlan at fullback, while altering the team's playing style to overcome their lack of size in the forwards.

According to statistics provided by SportsData, the Dragons are making more passes than they were under Price, shifting the ball wide more regularly, using less short-side plays and make more decoy and supporting runs.

McGregor says: "We have got Tyson Frizell out at the moment, who I think is one of the best up and coming players in the game, but we have got some other guys there who have also got good late footwork at the line, which is important when you are not 120kg to preserve your body a touch; we have got guys pushing in close support, which is important when you are not 120kg, and in defence we are getting dual contact a lot more so if you put two 100kg together you get 200kg.

"There is not a lot of science to that, it is just a lot of hard work and dedication from the guys who take the field."

With Farrell, Frizell, Test winger Brett Morris and props Dan Hunt and Jack Stockwell sidelined by injury, as well as Dugan and Trent Merrin being on Origin duty, McGregor has had up to six players unavailable for each of the five matches he has been in charge but most are due back in coming weeks.