NRL 2018: Peter Doust to quit St George Illawarra Dragons at end of season
Nathan Brown, when he still had hair, perhaps said it best. The Dragons were only a few months removed from that 2005 semi-final capitulation to the Tigers, inching their premiership drought closer to three decades. Their star-studded roster had played poorly the week before as they headed to Brookvale on an Easter night in 2006.
As far as resurrections went, though, this one was swift and they snatched a win at the death over Manly. The fans had been baying for blood all week. The coach. The captain, who coincidentally coaches the Sea Eagles these days. But the one they wanted most was the CEO, Peter Doust. Brown saw red and ripped in as soon as he had walked into his post-match press conference, protecting his boss as he would any of his players.
Time to go: Peter Doust. Photo: Sylvia Liber
"A lot of other clubs get flogged," he fumed. "I haven't seen people wanting [then Brisbane CEO] Bruno Cullen or [then Sydney Roosters boss] Brian Canavan sacked ... the Roosters get beat but there will be no one saying, 'Brian Canavan, sack him, cut his head off because he's a snake and you've got to kill it'. That's because the Dragons are a popular club and there are expectations. We're not complaining."
Brown's comments said as much about his superior as himself, a man loyal, perhaps at times to a fault. He'd rather look in first before looking out. It's why a wet-behind-the-ears Brown went from playing with his mates to coaching them. Rookie head coach Steve Price sat behind the steering wheel of a bus expertly navigated by Wayne Bennett – and couldn't get it out of second gear with the remnants of an ageing roster. And when that wasn't working, another favourite son, Paul McGregor, convinced Doust he was the man. Show faith in those you've looked after and they'll show faith back. Twelve years on from Brown's passionate defence of one of the most polarising figures in the game, and Doust has finally called it a day, agreeing to step down as the longest-serving boss at an NRL club at the end of the season.
To put it in context, when Doust took charge of the joint venture, ANZ Stadium hadn't hosted a single sporting fixture. Now it is on the cusp of being knocked down.
And, as always with the red and white, it's long been black and white when it comes to the man sitting at the top.
The Dragons' fans base, a section of which has taken glee in unfurling those "Oust Doust" banners, won't know what to do on that famous patch of grass at Kogarah in 2019. They will argue one title in almost two decades with the calibre of player to pull on the most famous strip in rugby league hasn't been enough. The buck always stops at the top.
Doust's supporters have valid arguments, too. The high-wire balancing act of getting the St George-Illawarra merger away, perhaps the only joint-venture marriage that has truly not been beset by internal ructions, shouldn't be forgotten. He rolled out a red carpet for an outsider in Bennett and the heavens fittingly burst open on grand final night as the Red V finally won what they hadn't for 31 years.
Yet even for the greatest of survivors, rugby league can take its toll. In Doust's own words, it "never stops". One of his final points of business will to see the long-mooted buyout of the Dragons by WIN Corporation through. Doust has always privately recognised it would be the right time for him to step away, a time which should arrive sometime later in the year.
In the past couple of years, every NSW-based NRL club has had a turnover in at least one chief executive. Some of them more. At the Dragons, the same pair of feet has shuffled under the big desk at St George Leagues for 18 years.
So said one rival NRL club boss when it came to the topic of rugby league's most permanent CEO: "There could be a nuclear holocaust in rugby league and they would find one bloke still alive under a rock, Peter Doust."
And he'll have some arguing cause long after he's left, too.
P.S Thanks Coffs dragon
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...dragons-at-end-of-season-20180201-h0rzbp.html
