The list of our past coaches from the commencement of the joint venture to now leads me to say that I would place Griffin between Brown and McGregor. I agree with your ratings BBJF with Bennett at the top and daylight between him and Waite and not too far back from Waite, Brown is registered.
How would the likes of Griffin, who I have put behind Brown, and McGregor been rated if the squad of players that Waite had at the commencement of the joint venture were given to Griffin and McGegor during their coaching terms (Griffin of course yet to complete his)? How would Bennett be rating if he had the squad of players that Griffin and McGregor has/had? Somehow, I don't think that that daylight would be that great a gap. But Bennett had the ability to "improve" the players with his good man management skills.
McGregor loved the Dragons. He played great football for the joint venture and if he had have coached the Dragons with the likes of the 2010 team, his rating could have been up there but maybe not to reach the grand final as he would have lacked the man management skills.
To me, much of what coaches are able to achieve is relative to what the club is doing to get the right players at the club. We had Frank Facer who was able to get those great players to sign with the Dragons and because of his astute running of the club, the players wanted to stay. The coaches at the time, several being captain/coach, imo would not have that much work to do as the players themselves were the key to our success rate in that period.
The Storm, which is used a great deal to compare other clubs with, have been able to "attract" many players who show potential and then are coached to play the "Storm" way with obvious great results and Bellamy no doubt would have a sort of manual which sets down all of the criteria each player must do before playing first grade and they must endure strenuous measures to achieve the nod. Cam Smith wasn't "great" before the Storm signed him. He had the potential and they just trained him right to fit into the manual guidelines. So many others as well. In this case it has been the coach and the players were trained to believe in the coach. Once the players know the drill, the coach just sits back and lets the guys do their thing which he has faith in them to do. All he has to do is set the game plans for the clubs they face.
When Billy Slater hung up his boots, no one knew that the Storm had a young fella by the name of Ryan Papenhuyzen waiting in the wings or a Jahrome Hughes ready to take over from Cooper Cronk or Brandon Smith/Harry Grant to take over from Cam Smith. These players all had potential and trained the Storm way. Bellamy has set the "guidelines" in concrete and when he retires, the new coach just has to know the guidelines and do what Bellamy has done for the club for the past umpteen years. So the success will continue.
None of our coaches since Bennett have been able to improve the majority of the players "potential" to the extent of them becoming top consistently playing well footballers. Most still plod along as there is no set "guidelines" for improvement manual, I don't think anyway, for the coaches to apply to the players. If we were able to get a player like a young Cam Smith, would have McGregor or now Griffin be able to "improve" him. I don't think so, because there isn't a system in place for this at the Dragons, I don't think anyway.
Griffin is on a get success quick mission by hiring "experienced" players because of his short term contract. He doesn't have the time to sign players with potential. Maybe if he does have the time given to him, he might be able to do the "Storm" thing. But at this stage I rate him between Brown and McGregor.
