The more I hear of Ryles the less convinced I am he is the right choice. He's been the Roosters defence coach for the last 2 years..and that's gone downhill since Fitzgibbon left. There's talk the Roosters currently have a lack of leadership causing some of their issues and that Fitzgibbon provided a lot of that off field direction. Ryles has the same pedigree as Adam O'Brien and look how thats going..I just don't understand the spin on Ryles.
If reports are true Dragons management have not even talked to Flanaghan....thats not doing due diligence when it comes to selecting a coach.
George Mimis who manages Ryles, Hornby and Hasler has stated Hasler is by far the best credentialed coach available. Phil Gould...love him or hate him has stated Hasler is who the Dragons need just at the moment and not someone that has come from within the system..
I am getting worried we are jumping into the fire too quickly..
As an assistant, Fitzy has done better for the Roosters than Ryles for the period Ryles has been with them 2022 and almost half of 2023 and by what has been reported, he will not be there in 2024 even if he doesn't get the Dragons job. I think that the Roosters have realised that Ryles has not produced the right solutions and results as the assistant defence coach and as you say Twinkletoes, he may not be providing a lot of the off field direction that Fitzy had.
Fitzy though had a much longer tenure as a player and assistant coach at the Roosters and he did help Robinson secure three Premierships (2013, 2018, 2019), four Minor Premierships (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018), an Auckland Nines title (2017) as well as three World Club Challenges (
2014, 2019, 2020) as an assistant coach. So Ryles at the Roosters is in plenty of ways an anti-climax.
Fitzy's association with the Roosters started in 2000 when Gould brought him over to them from the St George Ilawarra Dragons joint venture. In 2002 he won a premiership under Ricky Stuart as a player and he killed it for years at that club as a player and assistant coach. Very much held in high esteem and such a pity we could not land him before we ended up with Hook.
Ryles helped Bellamy as an assistant defence coach to win the 2017 and 2020 grand finals before going over to the UK to help Eddie Jones's British Lions Rugby Team.
So overall this small comparison of Ryles and Fitzgibbon shows that Fitzy has done far better and that is why he has been able to get consistently good results with the Sharks.
I do think then that Hasler would be a good preference as we do need someone who has been there and done that and has the experience as an actual head coach and a successful one at that. He has only coached two teams Manly - winning premierships with them and the Bulldogs - able to coach them to play in 2 grand finals and in semis and top 8 in his time there.
Hasler is a tough and a no nonsense coach who would not have favourites so his selection of a team would be based on the best players all of the time. I think that he can lure some better players to the club and he should be able to fit in with the Dragons culture and will express himself the way he sees it.
So, while I was thinking Ryles would be the coach, I'm leaning to Hasler.