Former North Queensland Cowboy academy product Jai Doherty will move to Temora next month and link with the Dragons for the 2021 season.

Doherty has played a lot of underage representative football in Queensland and was keen to develop his game under new Temora coach Josh McCrone.

The 21-year-old can slot in at full-back, five-eighth or in the centres and will be a welcome addition to the Dragons backline.

"Jai was looking for an opportunity down south and to get out of Cairns," McCrone explained.

"He's played in a lot of rep teams as a junior and is only 21, so it will be his first year of senior footy.

"I don't know where he will slot in yet. He can play anywhere in the backline. I've watched a couple of clips of him and he's skillful enough. He's got good ball skills and is a goalkicker too, which is good.

"He's versatile, which is important, so he'll slot in somewhere."

The Dragons have been one of Group Nine's big movers since sitting out last year's shortened season.

They landed arguably the biggest coup of the off-season by welcoming McCrone home, but have since added Jaiden Burke, Nick Trevaskis and now Doherty. The likes of Sam Elwin and Hamish Starr have also returned after spending last season elsewhere.

Luke Skidmore will also be like a new recruit for the Dragons given he was unable to play a game last year.

McCrone said they are still open to the idea of adding more quality to their squad.

"We're always looking to add quality players," he said.

"We need to have a really strong reserve grade. You look at sides like Gundagai and Young last year, their reserve grade teams were really handy and it showed in first grade.

"I think we're building not a bad base. It would be nice to nail down a couple more blokes because there is a few spots we haven't 100 per cent got yet.

"Like everyone, a couple of big bodies would be handy."

Temora returned to training this week but will up the ante after Australia Day.

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