The well-publicised scrutiny of Steve Price by the media and fans alike, culminated last week in his sacking from the St George Illawarra Dragons.
Temporary saviour Paul ‘Mary’ McGregor will step in as the caretaker coach for the remainder of the season.
Mid season coach changes are not at all a good look, it shows that a club is so desperate they sack the man who is in charge rather than looking at the real issue, the players.
I agree that letting Price go is the correct decision, he had a poor record despite starting off well, and has slumped to three straight humiliations.
But it was not the bulk of the problem.
The Dragons’ losing trend will certainly continue under Paul McGregor unless he is well versed in the dark arts. If McGregor can’t come down to Wollongong and conjure out of thin air two 115-kilogram props, things will not change.
In the last three weeks the Dragons have lost to the Roosters 34-14, the Bulldogs 38-6 and the Eels 36-0. In those three defeats, the Dragons forward pack were treated like the Under-10s from the Berkeley Eagles. They suffered an average difference of 648 metres gained, peaking against the Bulldogs with 753 metres.
When you compare the size of the Dragons pack to what I think is the best and biggest in Canterbury, the disparity is staggering. The combined total weight of the Canterbury forwards is over one ton, at 1003 kilograms. This is compared to the Dragons’ total of 944 kilograms.
The average weight of the forwards for the Dragons is 104 kilograms, while the Canterbury average is 111.5 kilograms. That means that the average player for the Bulldogs weighs more than the Dragons’ biggest, Leeson Ah Mau (111 kilograms) and in actual fact, five Bulldogs forwards edge him on the scales.
While having a mobile and smaller pack can work for teams such as the Tigers occasionally, those players have to be playing out of their skin to match and defeat packs like the Roosters, Rabbitohs and the Bulldogs. That is something the Dragons are not able to do.
In this situation of a smaller pack being consistently dominated, I feel bad not only for the forwards, but for the backs. The Dragons have some excellent talent in Gareth Widdop, Josh Dugan, Brett Morris and Benji Marshall – if he can find form – who have the ability to break games open with flashes of brilliance.
But rugby league is grit first, glamor second. When twisting the top off a stubborn jar of strawberry jam, you first need to loosen it and then with a few more spectacular twists the top will pop off and allow you to reap the rewards of your labour. This concept applies to the Dragons.
Without the forward pack loosening the jar lid with metres gained and tackles made, the backs have no chance of ripping off the top and actually winning games. Unfortunately the Dragons’ forwards are incapable of doing this legwork.
So Paul, the solution is simple. Either collect as many books on Haitian voodoo magic as you can or recruit a few forwards with size and skill. Otherwise this trend of a dominated Dragons team dwelling near the bottom will continue.
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This can't have been a lot of fun for Brad and Gutho!
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