Success for McGregor is good for St George Illawarra’s soul
TIM BARROW
8 Jun 2017, 8:38 p.m.
So close: Rod Wishart knocks the ball back, for Dragons coach Paul McGregor to gather and score a try in the 1999 NRL grand final loss to Melbourne. Can he win one as coach?
PAUL McGregor’s new two-year deal is more than a reward for the Dragons’ jaw-dropping NRL rise.
It’s a chance for one of their own to finally deliver a premiership.
Because, suddenly, and with more certainty than at any time since Wayne Bennett was in Wollongong, St George Illawarra are in a position to win the title in the next three seasons.
They are, to steal the cringeworthy and now largely redundant AFL term, in a premiership window.
They now run hard, they can score points, they have game-breakers.
Importantly, St George Illawarra have players with upside, like Paul Vaughan, Cameron McInnes, Nene Macdonald, Jai Field and established stars Tyson Frizell, Jack de Belin and Gareth Widdop.
And they also have tossed a few very large eggs in the basket of axed Brisbane Broncos playmaker Ben Hunt.
Not to say they can’t win it this year, but at 28, Widdop’s expected combination with 27-year-old Hunt next season provides a senior, experienced pairing who should be at the height of their careers.
Vaughan and McInnes have been two of the buys of the year and were the examples McGregor used when asked about Hunt being dropped by Bennett at Brisbane.
“I’ve got no doubts (about Hunt) at all,” McGregor said on Thursday.
“Ben’s certainly a good acquisition for our club in 2018.
“He is playing with the Broncos in 2017 so he’s not going to help us this year but going forward he’s definitely a player we think will take the club in a good direction.
“…We’ve seen this year with the players that have come to our club in Cameron McInnes and Paul Vaughan… they didn’t finish in first grade last year and they’re playing the best footy of their careers.
“I’ve got no doubt when Ben does come into our environment he’ll play really good footy.”
Even when you factor in losing Josh Dugan to Cronulla, with emerging talent like Field in the ranks, the Dragons have a club profile with the ability to win a title in the near future.
And so two decades after captaining the losing grand final effort, McGregor has the chance to renew some faith in Dragons fans supporting their own.
Because McGregor has already silenced the experts, knockers and trolls this year. #FailMary and #HaulPaul became regular Twitter hashtags last year and in the pre-season, as the Steelers, Dragons and NSW great became a pantomime villain.
Because St George Illawarra fans have a knack of turning on their own.
It’s because Nathan Brown couldn’t win a premiership – and lost his hair trying.
Steve Price was handed a salary cap mess after Bennett left and never recovered.
McGregor seemed destined for the same fate, when the Dragons predictable and impotent attack fumbled around last year.
The newly-minted contract extension takes McGregor to the end of 2019, 20 years after the grand final loss to Melbourne.
The sliding doors moment that condemned them to a premiership drought, which was only broken by Bennett’s title-or-bust plan and the iron will of a guy like Dean Young.
In 1999, as it ticked over 56 minutes, McGregor offered St George Illawarra renewed belief their time had come.
Hopes and dreams were peaking towards reality when leading 14-nil, but the tension rose as Anthony Mundine dropped the ball over the line and Melbourne started their comeback.
McGregor scored off one of the ultimate Illawarra connections in play.
Trent Barrett’s kick to the wing, Rod Wishart knocking the ball back inside, McGregor try.
It made it 18-6, before the fateful Craig Smith-Jamie Ainscough penalty try madness.
So now, having missed out on a title as a player and shown the door at the club when Bennett arrived at the end of 2008, McGregor has clear air to deliver.
As one of their own.
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/...s-good-for-st-george-illawarras-soul/?cs=3713
