- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roar Rookie
Joined May 2019
0
Views
0
Published
35
Comments
Published
Comments
Don’t underestimate the strategic nous of this organisation. Added to Matt Cooper’s modest social media contribution this latest brain fart is just a smoke screen to hide the real objective: another offer to Israel Folou.
Dragons fans up in arms as club considers name change to wipe St George and Illawarra off the map
I have a bit of sympathy for Mary on a personal level but Dragons management has to take responsibility for allowing the situation to fester for nearly seven seasons. The damage done by the Price and McGregor years to the club’s image and future can only be fixed by an honest stocktaking of this period and a determined effort to inject some professionalism and vision into the next decade. The successful Bennett era from 2009 to 2011 should have been a blueprint for the future but instead the ‘Old Boy’ culture prevailed. A top down purge of coaching, recruitment (dependent on having a good coach) , junior development and corporate backing has to take place- including the role of WIN Corporation and its seemingly impotent status in the club’s fortunes.
Why Dragons coach Paul McGregor left the club
The joint venture has never lived up to its potential, outside of a near miss in the 1999 G.F., more near misses during the wasted Brown era and, finally the three years of professionalism under Bennett. The period post Wayne has seen a steady decline in standards, ranging from recruitment, junior development and coaching (read: Price and McGregor). WIN Corp’s involvement in particular has been underwhelming, with Andrew Gordon’s presence on the board being almost invisible as far as the supporters’ base is concerned. The club now has none of the aura of the St George history and little market muscle in attracting elite players. Only a root and branch purge of the administration will stop the decline.
Who is the most powerful NRL club? Part 3
There seems to be a perpetuated myth that Bennett was gifted an entire and gifted roster in 2009 that enabled him to win a title in 2010. In fact, Bennett plugged several gaps with players like Darius Boyd, Neville Costigan and Jeremy Smith. They would not have won the GF in 2010 without those cattle.
Would St George Illawarra consider bringing back Nathan Brown?
What a survivor this guy is! Still, it’s hard to see who is available right now to fill his boots. Dean Young would probably get a “dead cat bounce” from the side, much like Mary did when he replaced Price all those years ago, but it’s hard to see him as a genuine long term answer. Flanagan can’t step in until 2022. The problem is it looks like Mary has lost the dressing room and this is a very hard state of affairs to reverse once the rot sets in.
Paul McGregor survives the axe after emergency board meeting
G-H, Mary IS a suburban grade coach.
McGregor's team changes are one last, desperate roll of the dice
I can’t remember a case in recent times where a first grade NRL coach has been given as many get out of jail cards as Mary after repeated poor performances. Assistants have been thrown under a bus and a raft of new staff appointed while McGregor sails through the storm untouched. And the uncertainty about the club’s CEO position does not help.
Why the Dragons can cover Jack de Belin’s loss this season
It will be interesting to see how ‘Mary’ goes next year, assuming Shane Flanagan is appointed as assistant, and maybe Phil Gould in some capacity at the club. The Dragons board have I suspect grudgingly admitted privately that McGregor’s inexperience at NRL level when appointed in 2014 has finally come back to haunt them. Most successful NRL coaches serve an apprenticeship under at least one experienced senior coach in various roles as part of their development. McGregor had a mediocre record at park football level in the Illawarra before being parachuted into the job following the hapless Steve Price. It may also be pertinent that Wayne Bennett was not interested in having him on his staff in 2009. Unfortunately, a background as a top level player, as Mcgregor was, does not guarantee success as an NRL coach.
The Dragons won't fix their woes until they have a new coach
How many more support staff at the Dragons have to be sacrificed to protect McGregor? If this guy has one skill it is being able to make himself indispensable while displaying no talent for the job he is in over a period of six years. How do the Dragons board members sleep at night?
Sorry Mary, it's time to go
Thanks for Clearying that up, W.D.D.
Which non-finalist has been 2019's most disappointing side?
Dragons and McRigormortis by 10,000 light years.
Which non-finalist has been 2019's most disappointing side?
Surely even the Dragons board must be aware their blind loyalty to McGregor and the April contract extension have become an embarrassment and must surely be a problem for sponsors and player agents. Contrast this with the brutal and decisive action the Knights took with Nathan Brown after he lost the dressing room. Tossing a few of the support staff under the bus is not going to cut it for this train wreck.
The brutal questions Paul McGregor has to answer
Is this the same bus that the support staff have been thrown under?
The side that can save our Saints in 2020
Never underestimate Mary’s bulletproof status in the Dragon’s den. They are prepared to throw everyone, including the guy who cleans the gym under a bus to insulate him from any responsibility for the performance of the side. So depressing that a coach who has so obviously lost the dressing room gets to drag this once great club to further depths for two more years.
Eight talking points from NRL Round 23
Seemed to work with the Dragons in their semi v Broncos last year. As Shane Warne said a few years ago you only need a coach to get you from the hotel to the ground.
Newcastle owe Nathan Brown a debt of gratitude – but who will replace him?
I bet Brownie wishes he could have magically switched roles with Paul McGregor and been judged by the Dragons board instead of the Knights management. He would have had a two year extension in his pocket by now.
A dignified end to Nathan Brown's tumultuous tenure in Newcastle
The Dragons recently organised a tribute lunch for McGregor at a beach side hotel in Wollongong. The theme was ‘There’s Something About Mary’. This sort of bash is usually bunged on at the end of someone’s career when everyone looks back through rose colored glasses and an alcoholic haze to heap praise on the recipient, not in the middle of a busy game schedule. This knees up seems as bizarre as his contract extension after a handful of games early this year and a mediocre five previous years. Perhaps the theme should have been ‘There’s Something Wrong About This Whole Thing’.
Is McGregor the right man to coach the Dragons?
The Dragons made a play for Bellamy to replace Bennett in 2012 with a big dollar offer. He couldn’t bring himself to leave the Storm then. He has survived the loss of Cronk and Slater and overseen the emergence of a new generation of emerging talent there. Why would he want to join an organisation of inward looking seat warmers who would want to clamp the shackles on him as far as recruitment, support staff, etc?
Why Craig Bellamy should seriously consider coaching the Dragons
I don’t know if this is an urban myth but I was told a story by a Gold Coast resident about a guy who started up a sports shop there and proceeded to order in his stock, including NRL jerseys. Assuming the Titans ones would be the biggest sellers he ordered a large quantity of them and smaller quantities of other clubs. He opened up for business and found that the Titans jerseys hardly moved off the shelf while the Dragons jerseys sold out in a few days.
Brennan had to go, but the Titans' problems run deeper than the coach
In 2009 Peter Doust bit the bullet and admitted the side was going nowhere and with an aging roster and a coach who had plateaued in his ability to progress the team: the window for a title was closing fast. He bought in Bennett and Wayne bought in his own staff, in the process politely declining to keep Mcgregor on the books. Bennett changed the whole playing style to suit the cattle available and filled the halfback slot with Ben Hornby. He then added several key imports in Jeremy Smith, Darius Boyd etc, to fill gaps and stiffen up the pack. Something similar has to happen now. Dragons management has to forget about ‘Dragons culture’ and the other wishy washy terms they trot out. Make a play for a top coach, pay McGregor out, send Hornby and Dean Young to serve an apprenticeship under Craig Bellamy (if he’ll have them) and start a new era. Surely Bruce Gordon isn’t satisfied with the tailspin the club is in now.
Why Mary and his little lambs have got to go
I am convinced the Dragons will never win a title even at full strength with their current roster and McGregor at the helm. Despite having a formidable pack with several State of Origin stars, even without Jack Debelin, and a decent halves pairing they lack player depth and the X- Factor of a Cameron Smith or Cooper Cronk. Their backs, except for the occasional spark of Dufty are a mixture of bog average (centres) and greenness (wingers). The contrast with the Storm is stark, where replacement players during Origin time slip easily into their roles and look every inch first graders.
Paul McGregor 'interested to see what Graham Annesley says' about contentious penalty
If the Dragons are going to stick to their old boys addiction I wouldn’t mind Jason Ryles getting a shot if and when Mary falls off his perch. At least Ryles seems to have had a decent apprenticeship under a top coach in Craig Bellamy.
Eight talking points from NRL Round 14
You hear a lot about ‘freedom of speech’ in these cases but hardly anything about responsibility. Folou signed a contract, for big bucks, with Rugby Australia. It contained certain clauses about his public profile and his responsibilities around this. As in the Debelin case the courts will decide that employers also have rights and that these rights are enforceable. ‘Freedom of Speech’ is not an infinite right. It has to be seen in the context of a persons’ employment situation and many other factors.
A tale of two disasters
Desperate times….Fast track the Centre of Excellence.
Jason Ryles was the perfect fit for Dragons. His rejection shows why they've replaced Tigers as NRL's basket case