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Gould reviewing Dragons.

Messages
2,639
Is it true that we have the lowest game attendance in the league ? If that is the case surely they are already hurting in the pocket and perhaps some board members are correlating it to the poor performance and attributing it to the coach , surely ?

Yes, it's true. There's no floor to the mediocrity Johnston and the board will accept.

received_533308900757343.jpeg

Straight Shooter
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,969
Make no mistake this Gould review is nothing but a big smokescreen.....simply put the Board know full well they arnt going to sack The Imposter......because they made a gigantic blunder in signing him for another 2 years when it wasnt warranted they
Are now pretending to address the issue by having Gus on the review to give people the impression things will be different next year and beyond........and as forThe Imposter calling in his supposed mate Gould hes only doing that imo to save his own arse
 

utility dragon

Juniors
Messages
122
Make no mistake this Gould review is nothing but a big smokescreen.....simply put the Board know full well they arnt going to sack The Imposter......because they made a gigantic blunder in signing him for another 2 years when it wasnt warranted they
Are now pretending to address the issue by having Gus on the review to give people the impression things will be different next year and beyond........and as forThe Imposter calling in his supposed mate Gould hes only doing that imo to save his own arse
Perfectly put!
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,969
Something needs to be done now, why wait until next season.

Fans will settle down if Mary is sacked and a good coach signed (not Dean Young).
I agree with what you say Possm....but tbh they have had years to make the fans settle down...but obvioulsy thats not their priority is it
 
Messages
2,639
Buzz on Controversy Corner tonight:

- it doesn't make sense for Gould to assist with review;
- how can a review be conducted without assessing the head coach (performances have not been great over 5 years);
- conflicted: Gould is good friends with Mary;
- Dragons fans deserve better.

Andrew Voss:

- disclaimer: I am good friends with Gould;
- he has the sharpest mind in league;
- Mary has a new two year contract so of course his position won't be subject to review;
- Gould's role is to offer advice on how the club can improve under Mary.

The bald f#*ker fails on every performance indicator except his networking prowess. Reminds me of the bitch at work, an absolute cancer but gets by on building relationships with people who are not directly exposed to her work.

Makes my f#*king blood boil.

Straight Shooter
 
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Gareth67

First Grade
Messages
8,406
Buzz on Controversy Corner tonight:

- it doesn't make sense for Gould to assist with review;
- how can a review be conducted without assessing the head coach (performances have not been great over 5 years);
- conflicted: Gould is good friends with Mary;
- Dragons fans deserve better.

Andrew Voss:

- disclaimer: I am good friends with Gould;
- he has the sharpest mind in league;
- Mary has a new two year contract so of course his position won't be subject to review;
- Gould's role is to offer advice on how the club can improve under Mary.

The f#*ker fails on every performance indicator except his networking prowess. Reminds of the bitch at work, an absolute cancer but gets by on building relationships with people who are not directly exposed to her work.

Makes my f#*king blood boil.

Straight Shooter

If there is anything good about this it is that the human football won’t be paid for this so called ‘ review ‘ , but then again what can one believe anymore when it comes to the Dragons ?
 

redandwhite4evr

Juniors
Messages
1,816
Those of you who like me remember the superb British satirical comedy Yes Minister and later Yes Prime Minister will recognise elements of advice given by Sir Humphrey Appleby to Minister/Prime Minister Hacker when setting up an enquiry or review in how the Dragons have set up their end of season review.

First, you set up the terms of reference that will guarantee that the review/enquiry can only report back with recommendations that are acceptable to you. McGregor's position is not to be reviewed so no recommendation can come back supporting his sacking.

Second, you choose a chairperson who is "sound". The word sound here has a number of meanings. Firstly, it implies that the chair is someone who will go along with a process which, to most of us, is flawed from the start ie excludes any criticism of Mary. Gould was a Dragons supporter when growing up.

The word sound also implies someone who is likely to make recommendations acceptable to the Board as they are looking forward to being rewarded with a lucrative position akin to what Phil Gould enjoyed at the Panthers. Gould has left behind a mess- with the Panthers now nine years into a five year plan, players signed on long-term contracts being released early , coaches being sacked and rehired only to again underperform ….but our Board has never let bad performance get in the way of being rewarded (eg Mary's two year extension).

Objective media observers I have listened to have labelled the SGI review process a "joke". The pity is that Gould does not appear to have a sense of humour and is taking it all seriously.
 

getsmarty

Immortal
Messages
33,485
NRL: Phil Gould reveals he won't be paid for heading up Dragons' end-of-season review
https%3A%2F%2Fimageresizer.static9.net.au%2F0VJD7r7r3rgqHQ3piRbZCAwz8D4%3D%2F75x75%2Fsmart%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2F_%2Fmedia%2F2019%2F05%2F09%2F16%2F59%2Fgeorge-vlotis-sports-journalist-wide-world-of-sports-389px.jpg
By George Vlotis
2 hours ago
Gus steely over Dragons review
Rugby league guru Phil Gould has revealed he will not be getting paid for heading up St George Illawarra Dragons' end-of-season review.

Wide World of Sports revealed last Friday that Gould would be playing a role in conducting the club's annual review after a lacklustre season saw the star-studded roster finish 15th on the ladder, the lowest ranking in the joint-venture's 20-year history.

Gould was steely over the details of his impending stint but confirmed he was doing it as a favour for his former player and Dragons coach Paul McGregor who reached out to him personally.

"I'm doing Paul McGregor a favour, he asked me a couple of weeks ago," Gould told Nine's 100% Footy. "It's just a review.

https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F245f00b1-d7e5-4aaf-a125-80ae2b1aa056

Phil Gould and Paul McGregor (Getty)
"Paul just wants an outside set of eyes and ears over his review process that he has at the end of every season.

"I've already spoken to the CEO, the football manager and the coach. It's not football related, unless something comes from the players then it could be football related.

"But you're never going to know because I'm never going to talk about it. The only people I'm going to talk to are Paul and Brian Johnston and that'll be the end of it.

Gus steely over Dragons review
01:48

"It's not even a paid job, I'm just doing it as a favour for an old player of mine."

https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F307a3640-f2f4-4601-8ac7-1b3a24b1719f

Dragons coach Paul McGregor. (Getty)
McGregor's role has come under fire from fans in recent weeks, less than five months after he was re-signed by the club on a two-year deal.

The roles of assistants Dean Young and Ben Hornby are also believed to be under serious pressure.

Gould spoke extensively about the Dragons in last week's Wide World of Sports Six Tackles with Gus podcast, revealing he's "not feeling any signs of McGregor not being supported going forward".

"I don't think they're about to make any changes," Gould said tellingly.


The Dragons undertook a similar review at the end of 2016, which was headed by former captain Mark Coyne.

Gould's involvement will be his first at an NRL club since he left Penrith earlier in the year, ending an eight-year stint as the club's head of football.

- with aap


https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/phil-g...n-review/bdcf3fbe-5fc4-4c9d-8e17-995279920a6f
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,969
Seriously do they think we are all that naive....I bet Gould wouldnt be called in to the review if The Imposter didnt have 2 years to run on his contract.....the bottom line is they stuffed up and their committed to paying him....like The Imposter and his paint tins their trying to Gloss it over .....end of story
 
Messages
3,582
Worst of all Gould openly states:

Paul’s a mate

I am reviewing his review process

How is this a comprehensive independent review

I can now see how McGregor got the job in the first place

I have great mentors

Phil Gould is my sounding board

If the current Board doesn’t get an injection of new blood, our club will be playing Park footy in Adelaide or Perth within 2 years
 

Gareth67

First Grade
Messages
8,406
When this is all done and dusted we will have McGregor coming out of it with a Colgate smile , make no mistake about it . As said by others this is only an attempt at a cover up of his short comings as a coach and nothing more.

To have his ‘ mate ‘ do the cleaning of his dirty laundry and report back to the J.V. henchmen that “ yes you have made the correct decision in extending the maestro and it certainly was not his fault that the team played their way into 2nd last place on the competition ladder “

Would not surprise me in the least if he - the human football went a step further by urging the Dragon hierarchy to extend his contract now before other clubs approach him :flushed:

Gawd life was not meant to be easy was it .
 

Paddles

Juniors
Messages
312
The board are, by incompetence or design, being led around by McGregor like a dog on a leash. And fans are being treated as chumps.

They have a strategy in place to wait out the outrage, and put 'performance requirements' in place for McGregor that they know he will pass.

They will say he needs to win more than half of his first 8 games, which he has habitually done, even this year. We know winning a few games at the beginning of the year is not the problem, so why is that the test?

We need a series of factual analyses, passed onto the likes of Webster and other sites (Zero Tackle, the Roar etc) while this review is happening, including:
- results in black and white - 6 seasons of failure
- continual end of season fades, year after year
- inability to develop young players, and choosing plodders/favourites while letting talent wither/leave
- bench/player management
- inability to accept shortcomings - embarrassing excuses even now - he's his own harshest critic and excited for 2020? wtf?!
- responses to the excuses dished up (e.g. the idea that he doesn't control and isn't responsible for recruitment, when he has great input, but to the extent that responsibility was taken off him it was because of previous failure etc)

Any other big topics worthy of a short piece?
 
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