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Opinion
It seems that the 2020 NRL season for the St George Illawarra Dragons can’t get any lower.
After the extended break because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Dragons have failed to register a try in back-to-back games, doing it against the Warriors and Bulldogs.
When a club falls in to a state of embarrassment, where seemingly all of their practices come into question, the axe immediately starts to fall on the head coach. It is not surprising, however, in recent times to become cliched and overplayed.
With the Dragons still winless from their four starts this year, their board conducted an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon when it was decided that coach Paul ‘Mary’ McGregor’s time would continue.
It was a shock to many in the rugby league world, particularly after the coach’s dishevelled and often depressing state of mind after Monday’s loss to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
It was coincidentally after this loss that many called for McGregor’s head. And with a 46 per cent winning rate in seven years with the club, many were left dumbfounded why he was kept on.
However, even though you can blame McGregor for the side’s woeful attacking shapes or the constant changing of the spine, what you can’t fault is his spirit. Even after looking dejected and physically ill on Monday, he even showed up and answered the critics on NRL 360, where he was berated by a panel that was more interested in his employment future than his side’s recent loss. And even in the face of turmoil these last two weeks, McGregor has always turned up.
Unlike his players.
It has become all too easy to shift blame to a coach once a team starts to slide. Fans and members alike quickly turn their pitchforks on the head coach and blast him on Twitter, all without once questioning the form of the 17 on the park. I’m not saying all fans haven’t criticised the Dragons players, but it certainly hasn’t reached the level of disdain for McGregor.
In the four games the Dragons have played this year, they have only scored 44 points and conceded 96. That’s an average of 11 points a game, or fewer than two tries. That’s a team with two State of Origin representative halves, and a forward pack that can match any in the competition.
In the 17 players that played the Bulldogs on Monday afternoon, ten of them had played representative footy at either the state or national level. Excluding games such as City versus Country and the Prime Minister’s XIII, the Dragons’ representative tally is 164 games. For a club sitting in outright last on the table, this is farcical.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Ben Hunt looks a shell of himself, while Corey Norman seems more interested in his latest haircut then actually playing footy. Tyson Frizell puts in effort yet it looks like he’s got one eye on 2021 with the Knights rather than focusing on his side’s struggles. And while James Graham admirably tries his best, his 400-odd games between the Super League and NRL are starting to catch up with him.
Michael Ennis recently summed it up perfectly on Fox League when he said the Dragons team resembled a bunch of strangers. This was after the New Zealand Warriors – who had to relocate to another country to train – completed 46 out of 48 sets in a match and kept the Dragons scoreless.
Yet the head coach should be sacked?
In the next two weeks the Dragons face both the Sharks and Titans – sides with only one win apiece. If they are to lose these games, McGregor’s role must certainly come under question. He will probably be sacked and Saints fans will presumably rejoice and hope for the future.
Yet what happens when McGregor is gone and they continue to lose. Who will they blame then?
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