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Steve Price coached Warrington win Challenge Cup

BennyV

Referee
Messages
22,441
Congrats to Steve Price but better than Mary? Maybe now but he wasn't back then. Utterly clueless when it came to strategy, tactics or man management. I well remember his cringeworthy press conferences which make McGregor appear erudite and refined in comparison.

Pretty sure Millward won a comp in England as well. Success there doesn't necessarily translate to success here.
Price is better than Mary now.

Mary is worse now that Price ever was.

Comparing the playing roster that Price had and conditions under which Price had to work to that of Mary is like comparing accomodation in a minimum security prison to a 4 star hotel. Price had to deal with the likes of an aging Fien, Hornby and Stanley in the halves. He had to put his stamp on a team coming off the best coach in JV history and attempt to revitalise a stale structure in players who’ve only known one way to succeed. He has Craig Young pulling the recruitment and retention strings, resulting in the likes of Dan Hunt, Cam King and Mitch Rein rounding out our list of marquee players. And he had to deal with white anting by his main assistant and lack of support from management.

By comparison, Mary had the red carpet rolled out, burned through several assistant coaches, high performance coaches and recruitment managers, had excuses made for him by management, players and media and has still managed to lead us to many of our negative records, including biggest losses at Kogarah, worst losing streaks, biggest slide in history, and so on.

Price was a horrible coach for us. He clearly wasn’t up for it at the time and I was glad when he was sacked.
Mary is another level of bad, and should never have been appointed in the first place. He is causing damage to this club that will set us back 5 years, and it gets worse every week that he remains employed.
 

Forbes Creek Dragons

First Grade
Messages
5,078
Stop calling him Mary.

When Price was sacked we were in 11th. McGregor turned us around and we finished... 11th. Price had halves like Chase Stanley and Nathan Fien and we never ended up as low as 15th. McGregor has internationals in those positions. He is objectively worse than Price
We never made the finals with Price, once finished 14th once were headed for the spoon until Mary won a string of games lifting us a few spots. Price win percentage was 36% with the Dragons, Mary’s win percentage is 47% so no he is not objectively worse than Price he is the exact definition of subjectively worse. Right now everyone is upset with Mary as am I but chinless is not better, he still had Soward and Brett Morris for example who have proven since still had/have it.
 
Messages
2,639
Price is better than Mary now.

Mary is worse now that Price ever was.

Comparing the playing roster that Price had and conditions under which Price had to work to that of Mary is like comparing accomodation in a minimum security prison to a 4 star hotel. Price had to deal with the likes of an aging Fien, Hornby and Stanley in the halves. He had to put his stamp on a team coming off the best coach in JV history and attempt to revitalise a stale structure in players who’ve only known one way to succeed. He has Craig Young pulling the recruitment and retention strings, resulting in the likes of Dan Hunt, Cam King and Mitch Rein rounding out our list of marquee players. And he had to deal with white anting by his main assistant and lack of support from management.

By comparison, Mary had the red carpet rolled out, burned through several assistant coaches, high performance coaches and recruitment managers, had excuses made for him by management, players and media and has still managed to lead us to many of our negative records, including biggest losses at Kogarah, worst losing streaks, biggest slide in history, and so on.

Price was a horrible coach for us. He clearly wasn’t up for it at the time and I was glad when he was sacked.
Mary is another level of bad, and should never have been appointed in the first place. He is causing damage to this club that will set us back 5 years, and it gets worse every week that he remains employed.

Excellent post. My only amendment would be deleting 'JV' before 'history'.

Straight Shooter
 

Blood Shot Eyes

First Grade
Messages
5,967
I am happy for the guy. Took his chops and went and did another apprenticeship with the Scum and is progressing in his career. You are correct that McGregor should follow in his footsteps if he serious about coaching. With all McGregor's friends in the media, he could get another NRL gig in 7-8 years with some success elsewhere.
If only he would....but he aint goin nowhere....hes got it to good here....as I've said ad nauseam he will be at the atm queuing tomorrow morning while us poor buggers lament another sad and wasted season
 

St Georgio

Juniors
Messages
2,283
Novice 1. Price never played at the highest level, only gets his chance because God said he would become good coach, no great assistance at all, he lasts 2.5 season before getting the sacked,
Novice 2. McGregor plays at the highest, marginally better than Price, red carpet comes out, Illawarra favorite, has Ian Millward doing some astute recruitment, also Millward did win a comp with St Helens, plus he has Hornby and Young helping out, 2 finals appearance 4 other years were flops!
Double Standards.
Like Nathan Brown S.Price would be a much better option than McGregor.
 

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,678
Some interesting FACTS:

Price in his first full year coaching with us (2012) was 12/25 = 48%
McGregor in his first full year coaching with us (2015) was 12/25 = 48%

Price in the year prior to being sacked (2013) was 7/25 = 28%
McGregor 2019 is currently 7/22 = 31.8%
 

Forbes Creek Dragons

First Grade
Messages
5,078
Some interesting FACTS:

Price in his first full year coaching with us (2012) was 12/25 = 48%
McGregor in his first full year coaching with us (2015) was 12/25 = 48%

Price in the year prior to being sacked (2013) was 7/25 = 28%
McGregor 2019 is currently 7/22 = 31.8%
Yeah but total career stats for Dragons is 36% for Price and 47% for McGregor, that’s stats though doesn’t take into account consistent late season fades just total games won/lost, which stats can’t really quantify as easily. Plus other things like losing players like Morris (Mary) Soward (Price) at the end of the day both amateurs, we need a consummate pro.
 

Forbes Creek Dragons

First Grade
Messages
5,078
How much lower can we go? Now there are people who would have Price back.
Yeah the hatred towards Price was savage back then. I hope Mary goes and wins a few himself. One interesting thing I heard in the rumour mill was that Browns sacking was a player driven sacking because they wanted Fitzy. He apparently wants the Dragons, if that’s the case let’s get him. Apparently all the ex Roosters boys love him.
 

This Year?

Immortal
Messages
31,276
I'm happy for Price and I'm sure Soward would be too. Sometimes people are just not supposed to fit in at certain places like Price didn't when Bennett left. Whoever was next coach after Bennett was always going to be up against it and at least Price become a cliche which was even made famous by the chinless clown sketches.
After doing his thing at the Sharks he then got his gig over there and all his work has paid off. Good on him.
 
Messages
718
Don’t think he was a bad coach just had a bad squad and a mess because of wayne departuring
Served his apprenticeship at the dragons and was moved on ... but has improved something I can’t say for Mary.
 
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