IT'S been 216 days since Newport Gwent Dragons had a happy changing room following a Guinness Pro12 success.

The 2015/16 campaign was a miserable one with just four league wins and 33 tries in 22 fixtures, a horror year that means it's now head coach Kingsley Jones rather than director of rugby Lyn Jones calling the shots.

They've not won in the Pro12 since toppling Leinster at Rodney Parade on January 29 and few will be giving them a chance at Ulster on Friday, although the same was the case last season when it took a last-gasp Paddy Jackson penalty for the semi-finalists to sneak to success.

In fact, it's not just at Ravenhill where the Dragons are being written off after a summer in which Wales and Lions superstar Taulupe Faletau headed for Bath with the eight new recruits filed under solid rather than spectacular.

Last summer there was positivity in Newport following a pretty good 2014/15 and the arrival of South African scrum-half Sarel Pretorius while the previous year Will Greenwood had rather optimistically predicted a play-off berth, a brave (and unsurprisingly daft) call by the World Cup winner given that the Dragons have not finished in the top half since 2005.

There have been no bold predictions like that this time around with one Irish newspaper even going the other way.

While most of us think things can only get better after last season's horror show, the Irish Times had the Dragons propping up the pile beneath Zebre and Treviso.

Oh well, predictions only serve to make the writer look foolish (who had Connacht making the play-offs, let along winning the title last year?) and I am quietly confident the following words won't leave me with egg on my face come May.

Maybe it's blind September optimism but there will be brighter times for Newport Gwent Dragons this season with more wins and hopefully a lot more entertainment.

I'll add a caveat, they may well still finish 10th, but there is no chance of the gap to those above them being as huge as it was following the embarrassing thrashing at the hands of Zebre in May.

The Dragons finished on 26 points, fewer points than the 28 to ninth-placed Edinburgh. This time they will at the very least be closer to the pack that sits just beneath the play-off hunt.

While that in itself may not be cause for wild celebrations, we should head into the season with realistic ambitions.

Reality is that the Dragons have a paltry budget compared to all of their rivals in the Pro12, let alone clubs in the Aviva Premiership and Top 14.

Sure, they can take some inspiration from Connacht but the men from Galway are not quite the paupers that others make out.

There needs to be some rationality ahead of the coming campaign.

When Dragons players talk about 'making Rodney Parade a fortress' they don't mean going through the whole season unbeaten in Newport, maybe just winning more games than they lose on home turf.

When the Dragons talk about a more expansive style they don't mean topping the try charts and being the Pro12's great entertainers, they just want to provide more of a spectacle for punters and have more fun themselves.

So, what should we demand of the Dragons this season?

Certainly more league wins that four and more tries that 33, plus at least one derby win (they were whitewashed by the Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and Scarlets last year) and a couple of away successes.

Throw in another trip into the knockout stages of the European Rugby Challenge Cup – very possible after being drawn against a Worcester side who will be more concerned with relegation, a frequently disinterested Brive and Russian side Enisei-STM – and that would represent a good effort.

Unless more funds can be found from somewhere then it's naïve to expect a top-half finish and exceedingly harsh to slam them if they endure another season as Wales' lowest region.

It may be like saying 'Citizen Khan' is an upgrade on 'Mrs Brown's Boys' but 2016/17 will be better than last season.

IF the Dragons are to turn a few heads this season then they need a raft of individuals to shake of the tag of being players of potential.

With 10 caps to his name Hallam Amos is no longer a prospect, Jack Dixon may be 21 but has made 56 regional appearances, Elliot Dee has had three seasons in the front row while both Cory Hill and Matthew Screech are pretty experienced in the second row.

Tyler Morgan, 20, has played at a World Cup and toured New Zealand so needs to stay injury-free and step up while we talk about Ollie Griffiths as being a flanker with the talent to make the progression to Warren Gatland's squad but he must perform consistently well in the back row.

Years go by quickly in rugby and players can quickly go from being Wales hopefuls to 'remember when he was tipped to be an international?'.

Darren Edwards frequently mentioned going through short-term pain with young talent for long-term gain. Lyn Jones did the same. Kingsley Jones can't spend another season talking about young prospects learning harsh lessons.