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Opinion
St George Illawarra dug their own hole and now they’ve accelerated their arrival at a destination they were always destined to reach: rock bottom.
Word leaking out on Tuesday night that Anthony Griffin would have to reapply for his job means the coach shouldn’t bother updating his CV, not for his current club anyway.
The Dragons are a measly two games into their season and this will almost certainly torpedo any chance the team had of making the finals.
They informed Griffin of their decision before the season had even started and even his harshest critic would have to feel sorry for him in this instance in that the club’s decision to test the coaching market is the closest thing they could do to a vote of no confidence in his ability.
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If this is how they felt after his first two seasons, the head honchos should have bitten the bullet at the end of last year.
Dragons coach Anthony Griffin. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The first 160 minutes of playing time that have elapsed this season hasn’t moved the needle good, bad or otherwise on whether Griffin can get the best out of this team. And it probably doesn’t matter if it does from here on in.
A comeback win over the Titans and a late fade-out to Brisbane has continued the theme of his up-and-down tenure from his first two seasons at the helm.
He should have at least been given another month or two to see if he could somehow conjure up the team’s first playoff appearance since 2018.
It’s becoming a trend in recent years to make a coaching call for the next season after just a few rounds – Cronulla did likewise with John Morris in 2021, installing Josh Hannay as the interim for the rest of the year while they waited for Craig Fitzgibbon to fulfill his obligations as a Roosters assistant.
If the St George Illawarra directores are worried about waiting too long and missing out on the signature of a preferred candidate, then that is a case of flawed logic.
This coaching gig should be one of the more appealing opportunities on the NRL landscape: a famous club with a large junior nursery, committed fan base and an appealing location for potential recruits to live.
With three former home-grown internationals on the coaching radar after serving their apprenticeships in Jason Ryles, Dean Young and Ben Hornby, the club shouldn’t need to appear desperate in the hunt for the next coach.
The next coach should want to be at the Dragons, not need to be enticed.
Last year the Wests Tigers gave Michael Maguire his marching orders midway through the season and had first crack at the belle of the prospective coaches ball in Cameron Ciraldo.
They basically offered him the keys to Concord with a five-year deal but he turned them down even before the Bulldogs were on the scent for him to replace Trent Barrett, whose tenure ended a month before Maguire’s.
The Dragons have a relatively tame schedule on the horizon, facing just three finals teams from last year in the next seven weeks. Making a call on the coaching situation now avoids the potentially curlier situation midway through the season of punting someone who has the team in the top eight.
Although Griffin is accustomed to that – he was shown the door by Penrith after back-to-back wins just a few weeks out from the 2018 finals when the team was tied for fourth with none other than St George Illawarra.
Ciraldo, there’s that name again, stepped into the breach and got the Panthers into the second round of the finals before a field goal from Sharks half Chad Townsend ended their season.
Jayden Sullivan scores. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
What remains to be seen now is how long Griffin sticks around, whether he jumps ship or is pushed.
Sunday’s Kogarah clash with Cronulla is one of the most important dates on the club’s calendar – irrespective of where the teams sit on the ladder, they both put this local derby above any other match, including St George Illawarra’s traditional Anzac Day fixture against the Roosters and all the pageantry that goes with that game.
Being an old-school operator it’s hard to see Griffin walking away from the task he signed up for until the writing is on the wall after a lengthy losing streak.
He brought in two inexperienced assistant coaches in Ryan Carr from Brad Arthur’s staff at the Eels and Ben Woolf from the Queensland Cup after Mathew Head and Peter Gentle were controversially told they were no longer required.
With their modest roster of a few current representative stars like Ben Hunt and Jaydn Su’A mixed in with veterans, rising stars and cast-offs from other clubs, even the most optimistic of Dragons fans would have thought the lower reaches of the top eight was probably the best-case scenario this year.
For whoever ends up as coach in 2024, they will oversee a squad containing players with potential whose best years are ahead of them like Jayden Sullivan, Tyrell Sloan, Junior Amone and Cody Ramsey when he returns from his serious intestinal problem next year.
Jack Bird. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
But there needs to be a clean-out of the several underperforming veterans who are well past their prime.
Former Kangaroos prop Aaron Woods is likely to retire, while Jacob Liddle, Moses Mbye, Tautau Moga, Josh Kerr, Billy Burns, and Tyrell Fuimaono are off contract.
The high-priced Jack de Belin contract will continue to be an albatross next season but the club/next coach needs to get more out of Jack Bird (under contract until the end of 2025) and Zac Lomax (2026), who are not giving value for their big-money deals.
For a proud club which has had just one playoff win since Wayne Bennett led them to the 2010 premiership, the next decision on who will be coach will be pivotal in their hopes of ending an era of vast under-achievement.