Sad News:Red V Fans Suffers Heart- Break Following Key Player’s Indefinite Suspension Today

A coach looks sad after losing a rugby league match

Griffin has coached his final game after the Dragons sacked the veteran coach. (Getty Images: Ian Hitchcock)

The axe that was teetering so precariously over Anthony Griffin’s coaching tenure has fallen with St George Illawarra announcing on Tuesday they would sack the embattled coach after two and a half struggling seasons with the Red V.

Results speak for themselves and the Dragons are currently second-last on the ladder and on the back of a six-match losing streak.

Throw in the struggles of previous years, the speculation surrounding the club’s pursuit of high-profile assistant coaches like Jason Ryles and Ben Hornby and it was a matter of when Griffin was let go, not if.

Assistant coach Ryan Carr will take over for the rest of the season but Ryles is in the box seat to lead the club into the future. If it does happen, that’s an appointment the Dragons and their fans should feel very good about.

Ryles is one of the most promising assistants in the league, with acclaimed stints at the Roosters and Melbourne, and would be a good choice for any club who needed to find their forever coach. Throw in his Dragons pedigree and it’s easy to see a future where Ryles coaches the club for many years to come.

It was always difficult to see that future with Griffin, which made him something of a curious appointment when he took the reins back in 2021.

The former Broncos and Panthers coach was counted as a safe pair of hands, a shepherd for the club’s younger players and a bridge between a rebuild and a brighter future.

There were sound principles behind that appointment, in theory, especially if Griffin was specifically chosen to be a bridge to a brighter future