The St George-Illawarra Dragons have copped it following a dismal start to the season in which they scored only eight points, and after a week where a Twitter campaign to #SaveOurSaints and #OustDoust dominated the headlines, the Dragons let their football do the talking in Canberra on Saturday night.
But the scrutiny the club faced over the last fortnight could have gotten worse and extended into another week had they not come from 18-0 down to defeat the Canberra Raiders – a team they have traditionally struggled against – at a venue where they have now won in their last two attempts.
The eight points scored by the team in the opening two rounds was the worst attacking output by any team after as many rounds since the Bulldogs scored just two points in their opening two rounds of the 2000 season.
Just a quarter into the match at GIO Stadium on Saturday night, the Dragons appeared headed for yet another embarrassing defeat when they fell three tries behind in quite possibly the worst first half the club has ever played.
Apart from the poor defence, the Dragons also dropped the ball, missed several tackles and kicks went out on the full as they had to contend with a five-day break and a second consecutive road trip, the club having gone down 22-4 to the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown last Monday.
However, they would fight back in the second half to snatch a 22-20 victory despite having ex-Raider and 100th gamer Josh Dugan sin-binned for a professional foul; he was met by cheers from the pro-Raiders crowd as he made his way off the field.
It could have ended in a draw had Gareth Widdop chose not to slot a penalty goal right on half-time, in which the Dragons trailed 18-8 after having scored their first try of the match through Penrith-bound Trent Merrin shortly before the half-time siren.
The against-all-odds victory by the Dragons was their second consecutive in Canberra, having broken a 14-year hoodoo in the nation’s capital with a 34-16 victory in Round 23 last year.
While the win may have eased the pressure on the club for the time being, it won’t be enough for Dragons fans to continue their campaign to get long-serving CEO Peter Doust – who has been in the role since July 2000 – sacked.
Doust was primarily responsible for some of the poor recruiting decisions the club has made during his tenure, including releasing the likes of Luke Patten, Mark Riddell, Lance Thompson, Shaun Timmins, Trent Barrett, Jamie Soward, Brett and Josh Morris, and more recently Trent Merrin, among others, to other clubs.
He also made the call to replace Nathan Brown with Wayne Bennett at the end of the 2008 season, after the club was deemed to have underachieved despite having a roster that at the time was capable of winning a premiership under the former.
They also had their on-field apparel supplied by one of the world’s biggest sporting brands, Adidas. At the time they also supplied the on-field gear for the AFL’s Collingwood Magpies and Adelaide Crows, and tennis’ Ana Ivanovic, among others.
But this decision proved to be the right call, as the Dragons would win a long-awaited premiership in 2010 twelve months after crashing out of the finals in straight sets, having finished the 2009 season as minor premiers.
Since then, however, the club has gone downhill on and off the field, having not reached the finals since 2011, appointing the untried Steve Price to the top role and then removing him as head coach in May last year in favour of another untried coach, Paul McGregor.
In addition, they lost many of their premiership stars either to retirement or rival clubs. The likes of Ben Hornby, Mark Gasnier, Matt Cooper, Nathan Fien and Dean Young have retired, while Brett Morris left last year for the Bulldogs and Trent Merrin will leave for Penrith at this season’s end.
Why did all this happen?
It was all in part to the incompetency of CEO Peter Doust, who responded to the Dragons’ Twitter campaign by addressing the club’s acknowledgement of the supporters’ well-documented frustration in a recent club statement.
In it, he also addressed the need to make tough decisions for the club going forward, such as the one to replace Nathan Brown with Wayne Bennett as coach at the end of the 2008 season which was vindicated with a premiership win in 2010.
As of this season, only three players remain from that premiership – winger Jason Nightingale, current captain Ben Creagh and forward Trent Merrin, who as already mentioned will join the Penrith Panthers in 2016.
The failure by the Dragons to retain Merrin also comes on the back of the club’s decision to release Brett Morris to the Bulldogs, where he is now reunited with twin brother Josh Morris who himself left the Dragons at the end of 2008 in search of more first-grade opportunities at Canterbury.
These are some of the clangers that Doust has committed in recent years, failing to retain the majority of the club’s premiership stars following the success of 2010, as well as taking games away from the club’s traditional home grounds of Kogarah Oval and WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
It came to the point where the Dragons had to play home games at Allianz and ANZ Stadiums against the Roosters and Bulldogs, the respective tenants of those grounds.
While the former is understandable as the Anzac Day clash must always be played at Allianz Stadium, the ANZ clanger allowed the Bulldogs to cash in on the gift that was given to them by Peter Doust and defeat the Dragons 38-6.
It hasn’t been all doom and gloom for the Dragons, though, with the club securing Melbourne Storm premiership-winning five-eighth Gareth Widdop as a replacement for Jamie Soward last year.
Widdop proved his worth for the club in 2014, producing many impressive performances as the Dragons slightly improved on their 14th-place finish from 2013. His combination with Benji Marshall, who joined the club in May after an ill-fated stint in rugby, is seen as crucial to the club continuing to improve in 2015.
While the club’s potentially character and season-building win over the Canberra Raiders could be a starting point as the Dragons attempt to get their season back on track, the fans have made it very clear that an overhaul of the club’s board is needed after 15 years of mostly incompetency under the leadership of Peter Doust.
The fact that there may soon be no survivors from the club’s 2010 premiership team, three straight seasons without finals football and continual unrest among the club’s most loyal supporters may finally be enough for the club to act.
But the big question is – when?
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