Hook, it’s time to move on from signing ex-Broncos

The latest rumour for Dragons fans disturbingly involves Josh McGuire, now aged 31 and increasingly both resembling and performing like an extra from the Mad Max movie franchise.

The burning question on every Dragons fan’s lips is why would Anthony Griffin want to sign Josh McGuire?

We all know that McGuire has had a long career, both belting the ball up the middle in attack and making opponents wish they’d decided to play a more civilised sport, and he’s played over 230 first-grade games, 14 Origins for Queensland and eight times for Australia.

On paper, that is a pretty impressive resume, but his form over the last couple of seasons has been poor to say the least.

The Dragons apparently already have plenty of middle forwards, so many in fact that they’ve just swapped man mountain front rower Eddie Blacker for Penrith’s edge forward Billy Burns, so a lack of middle players can’t be the reason.

The real reason behind Anthony Griffin’s imminent recruitment of McGuire is that he’s obsessed about getting the Broncos band back together, and finding some sort of closure from his brutal Brisbane experience.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

For those of you who don’t remember, Griffin was punted as Broncos coach in 2014 despite taking them to the finals in three of his four years with the clipboard at Red Hill.

He then spent two years in the coaching wilderness, picked up a gig with Penrith in 2016 before again being punted in 2018, spent three more years in the coaching wilderness, and was signed by the Dragons from 2021.

Now, he sees his chance at the Dragons to rebuild his Broncos empire and finally put things right.

The Dragons already had ex-Broncos Ben Hunt and Corey Norman on board when he signed on, and he quickly added former Broncos Andrew McCullough and Jack Bird, and now McGuire looks like he’s on the way to Wollongong.

Hunt and McCullough have captained the side in the first four rounds and Norman is apparently being offered a contract extension. Strange days indeed!

So how far can Hook take this attempt at rewriting his own history before someone stops him? How many of the Broncos’ class of 2014 will he be able to sign before the extended contract deadline ends this year?

As Dragons fans nervously scan the sporting media each day, fully expecting to read of the imminent arrival at Kogarah of the likes of Alex Glenn, Dale Copley, Corey Oates or Jarrod Wallace, I urge Anthony Griffin to step away from the recruitment folder, abandon this folly, and get on with the rest of his life.