DragonInTheInnerWest
Juniors
- Messages
- 60
Hooper hit the nail on the head on 360 ... The coach is too soft on senior players and lacks faith in the youngsters. His position has become untenable through sheer weight of poor results and lack of answers. That doesn't necessarily mean the club will make this change now and even if it does, won't result in vastly improved performances. A complete overhaul is required – something that was deferred after the Bennett years – but do Saints have the stomach for it? Arguably this has gone unaddressed since leaders like Hornby, Young, Morris, Gasnier and Cooper all departed between 2011 and 2014 and Creagh soon after.
McGregor's inability to bring on young talent is his biggest weakness and it's become debilitating. Aitken, Lawrie, Dufty and Host are examples of junior stars who were better players when they hit first grade than they are now. Robson, Field, Herbert and Garrick are some of the lost talent constantly overlooked for game time in losing teams that the coach refused to change. Lomax and Kerr are now in the 'trust grinder' and along with Saab – Lovodua, Ford and Sailor will be the next bracket looking elsewhere.
The club's board and football department are even more indictable. Too much pussyfooting around with reviews that were never designed to address real problems but mainly provide lip-service to fans. They even took the coach's job off the table during the latest charade. While showing faith in McGregor the club has passed on opportunities to sign Demetriou, Hasler, Maguire, O'Brien and Holbrook. That's a lot of short-sighted – and unaccountable – business decisions. The board's view of O'Brien as 'not ready' says it all.
If McGregor was the long-term solution then why did the club offer his position previously to Ivan Cleary and Tony Smith before being met with knock-backs? It's fair for the full scorn of fans to be directed at the board now. Some always had reservations about the WIN ownership buy-in. The deal took an age to get done because the company essentially low-balled Saints until the club became desperate. Negotiations, if you can call them that were all one-way traffic. Not a good starting point. Aside from debt-clearing, WIN's involvement to date has been underwhelming.
Don't buy that the club cannot afford to write the coach a redundancy cheque. At any level with an operating budget of something like $15m this does not make any sense. The WIN media empire is probably bleeding Covid cash but it's more the case they don't want to or feel they shouldn't have to pay the coach out and hire another. This would also require the board to take ownership of years of inertia through poor planning and decision-making.
The club is careering head-long towards a first-ever wooden spoon. It's fair to say we are the worst side in the comp by a distance with little up-side for improvement. Unthinkable. As per Hooper's diagnosis, it is a terminal position for a coach's future to fluctuate in weekly media discussions, a situation that never helps faltering teams find form.
The Dragons are in a shocking mess. In 43 years following the club I have never been so bereft of hope. Never worried too much about the club's future previously but there are genuine fears now considering a sclerotic management continually crying poor which eschews best business practice in favour of an insular, virtually paranoid style of governance.
There were times when St George were non-competitive in the late 80's and we also dealt with a fair bit of tumult in the mid-90's through Super League. Yet Saints have made Grand Finals with lesser squads than this one. It's fair to say the team is not too different to the one that slaughtered Brisbane at Suncorp in a semi final two years ago – a victory on par with any of the club's best wins. Sadly that was a false dawn and the football since has gone off a cliff.
Maybe the biggest indictment on the current head coach is the style of football his teams play. Boring, passion-less, predictable, unimaginative and un-inspired – even when winning. The team lacks discipline, skill and composure. Sadly, it was all too similar under Steve Price. This has become our trademark.
No matter how the club has performed in the past, it always found players who wanted to pull on the jumper. Players who gave us excitement and hope and coaches who inspired ... no longer the case. Not much will be immediately solved with the removal of the coach but it's a start. Don't care about premierships or (the relative and overused term) 'success'. We already waited 32 years for that so we cannot be accused of fair-weathered-ness ... but for the most part that was a hell of an exciting ride with much to be proud of along the journey. This has been a lost decade. The damage is done. Loyal supporters have lost feeling for the club.
McGregor's inability to bring on young talent is his biggest weakness and it's become debilitating. Aitken, Lawrie, Dufty and Host are examples of junior stars who were better players when they hit first grade than they are now. Robson, Field, Herbert and Garrick are some of the lost talent constantly overlooked for game time in losing teams that the coach refused to change. Lomax and Kerr are now in the 'trust grinder' and along with Saab – Lovodua, Ford and Sailor will be the next bracket looking elsewhere.
The club's board and football department are even more indictable. Too much pussyfooting around with reviews that were never designed to address real problems but mainly provide lip-service to fans. They even took the coach's job off the table during the latest charade. While showing faith in McGregor the club has passed on opportunities to sign Demetriou, Hasler, Maguire, O'Brien and Holbrook. That's a lot of short-sighted – and unaccountable – business decisions. The board's view of O'Brien as 'not ready' says it all.
If McGregor was the long-term solution then why did the club offer his position previously to Ivan Cleary and Tony Smith before being met with knock-backs? It's fair for the full scorn of fans to be directed at the board now. Some always had reservations about the WIN ownership buy-in. The deal took an age to get done because the company essentially low-balled Saints until the club became desperate. Negotiations, if you can call them that were all one-way traffic. Not a good starting point. Aside from debt-clearing, WIN's involvement to date has been underwhelming.
Don't buy that the club cannot afford to write the coach a redundancy cheque. At any level with an operating budget of something like $15m this does not make any sense. The WIN media empire is probably bleeding Covid cash but it's more the case they don't want to or feel they shouldn't have to pay the coach out and hire another. This would also require the board to take ownership of years of inertia through poor planning and decision-making.
The club is careering head-long towards a first-ever wooden spoon. It's fair to say we are the worst side in the comp by a distance with little up-side for improvement. Unthinkable. As per Hooper's diagnosis, it is a terminal position for a coach's future to fluctuate in weekly media discussions, a situation that never helps faltering teams find form.
The Dragons are in a shocking mess. In 43 years following the club I have never been so bereft of hope. Never worried too much about the club's future previously but there are genuine fears now considering a sclerotic management continually crying poor which eschews best business practice in favour of an insular, virtually paranoid style of governance.
There were times when St George were non-competitive in the late 80's and we also dealt with a fair bit of tumult in the mid-90's through Super League. Yet Saints have made Grand Finals with lesser squads than this one. It's fair to say the team is not too different to the one that slaughtered Brisbane at Suncorp in a semi final two years ago – a victory on par with any of the club's best wins. Sadly that was a false dawn and the football since has gone off a cliff.
Maybe the biggest indictment on the current head coach is the style of football his teams play. Boring, passion-less, predictable, unimaginative and un-inspired – even when winning. The team lacks discipline, skill and composure. Sadly, it was all too similar under Steve Price. This has become our trademark.
No matter how the club has performed in the past, it always found players who wanted to pull on the jumper. Players who gave us excitement and hope and coaches who inspired ... no longer the case. Not much will be immediately solved with the removal of the coach but it's a start. Don't care about premierships or (the relative and overused term) 'success'. We already waited 32 years for that so we cannot be accused of fair-weathered-ness ... but for the most part that was a hell of an exciting ride with much to be proud of along the journey. This has been a lost decade. The damage is done. Loyal supporters have lost feeling for the club.
