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I wrote on The Roar in August last year that the St George Illawarra Dragons needed to ice Steve Price. Nine months later the Dragons have finally shown him the door, and rightly so.
I am not one to blame a coach for players dropping simple balls and missing easy tackles, but this goes much further than that.
Price has shown no ability whatsoever to carry on the discipline that Wayne Bennett had instilled during his tenure at the Dragons.
Defensively St George Illawarra have gone from the best to almost the worst in two seasons. The attack is also boring and lifeless, and a poor kicking game tops it all off.
Sacking Price should have happened at the end of last season. As much as he seems like a nice guy, I was very happy to hear that he was moved on as coach.
I now hear that the Dragons have matched the Canberra Raiders’ offer to Melbourne’s Kevin Proctor, just weeks after the signing of Benji Marshall.
These are Peter Doust and Steve Price’s decisions and do not make any sense.
In no way am I blaming Marshall for the drubbing against the Eels. The Dragons forward pack is small, slow and has no punch. No go-forward makes it near impossible for Gareth Widdop to work off the back of them.
Marshall was on a hiding to nothing with that forward pack in front of him. Marshall at over $500k per season is a waste of money, but he has less chance of creating anything behind a pack full of back rowers.
Chasing Proctor makes no sense either. The money that the Dragons spent on Marshall and are now offering Proctor should have been spent on a front rower like Andrew Fifita or James Graham. Throw the cheque book at either of them!
Fifita would have been gold for the Dragons, with fullback Josh Dugan potentially floating around and getting plenty of offloads up the middle of the field.
The Dragons are going to continue to struggle for a few years yet if current CEO Peter Doust stays in charge and keeps making these decisions.
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