Sad News:St George illawarra Dragons Coach Suspended Indefinitely by World Rugby For….
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 i
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 abou
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 com
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 202
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 futur
There were sound principles behind that appointment, in theory, especially if Griffin was specifically chosen to be a bridge to a brighter futur
At both Brisbane and Penrith, Griffin helped bring a score of younger talents into first grade and while he never took either club to a grand final, Griffin teams never bottomed out and propped up the rest of the ladder either. You get a rebuild without a wooden spoon in sigh
On paper, that’s kind of what’s happened. The Dragons finished 12th and tenth in his two full seasons in charge – they weren’t especially bad but they weren’t especially good either, they just sort of existe
Local juniors like Jayden Sullivan, Talatau Amone, Tyrell Sloan and the Feagai twins have all cracked first grade under Griffin and, occasionally, showed glimpses of true brillianc
The Dragons are struggling but there is talent on that roster, talent that just needs to be harnessed and directed and refined. But the fact they need that refinement shows the broader struggles of Griffin’s tenur
Before Saturday’s listless defeat to the Cowboys their last five losses had come by two, two, one, six and two points. In each of those five matches they scored as many or more tries than their opponents but a lack of attention to detail let them down. At some point, that comes back to coaching
Apart from Ben Hunt, who was already a Test and State of Origin player, and the hard-nosed Blake Lawrie it would be exceedingly generous to say many of the club’s players have significantly improved since Griffin took ove
The paths of two players — enigmatic centre Zac Lomax and utility Jack Bird – are worth highlighting. They are two of the club’s most talented players and neither of them have been put in the best position to succee
As it stands, Lomax is languishing in reserve grade after two tough seasons where he’s looked far from the force he’s often promised to be. A move from right to left centre this year was a disaster and ended up with him in reserve grad
His goalkicking success rate has dropped from 78 per cent in 2020 to just over 60 per cent this year. He is not what he should be, not what he can be and there’s probably a lot of reasons for that and only Lomax knows which ones are true. But coaching has to be a part
