Round 21 vs. the SCUM

[Lovemedragons]

You're right that the attack was much more scintillating under under Waite and Brown, and we probably should've bagged a premiership from each coach. However, we didn't, and after waiting since 1979 for a premiership, I really didn't care how we won in 2010.

EDIT: Mind you, I was disappointed with 2011 after a season which started with so much promise. It seemed we couldn't continue to simply shut out teams, and probably should've looked at alternative game plan.

2011 derailed the moment Bennett was not extended.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Sorry for the looooong post .

Griffin was at the Bronco's 2011 - 2014. In that period he had the Qld pack (Thaiday, Gillett, Parker, young Maguire and McCullough, Glenn, Hannant, Te'o) He had Lockyer 1 year then Wallace, Prince a young Corey Norman, Ben Hunt (Ben was on the bench 2011/12 mind you Sulli take note) so of course he had a good record in making finals. If you have a great squad like that you surely make finals no matter how bad your tactics are, you make it on talent alone. This squad finished 12th mind you in 2013 with that much quality. 2012 and 2014 they finished 8th those years. 2011 his first season they finished 3rd which was his best year. When he left they got to the GF the following year under bennett.

Griffin at Penrith (mind you after Cleary laid the platform) 2015 - 2018. They finished 11th, 6th, 7th and 5th. The 3 times in the finals they won first semi and lost the second game each finals series. After Griffin left they had a season finishing 10th (yeah cleaning up his mess) and then 1st and GF after that. So my point is he had good squads both times which made it easier for him to make finals but he could not clearly make the next step. Why get a coach who can only get you to a final and get as far as game 2 of the finals where he has lost them all?

Watching Potter make Dogs from the worst attack in their history in the first few rounds to now the entertainers shows that changing the attack is achievable if you change your ways which is something Griffin refuses to do. And picking your favourites no matter how bad they play is a huge red flag.

Prior to Griffin getting the role Saints actually first approached Fitzy and he knocked them back to honour his Roosters deal and have his final year. Then they went Flanno until the NRL blocked their path. I thought Saints are looking at a rookie who had a good record under a super coach and then a Grand Final winning coach. I though Saints are actually making some smart choices with these 2.

Then it came down to Young, Griffin and Furner. Of the 3 Griffin would be the one to go for I suppose. Picking Young who was assistant to Mary would have not gone down well at all so they had no choice so you can understand why they went Griffin. Furner was terrible every where he went.

But after 2021 and now 2022 which have been disasters surely they cannot go another year. Griffin was so confident Saints would be finals this year. He said it was his team and a team he believed will make finals so you cannot say he did not have the cattle. He chose the has-beens and worst of all kept selecting them even though we can all see how slow they are and how poor their performances have been. Griffin put trust in these guys and they let him down. Now Saints need to move on as he has caused a huge rift with the playing group that he cannot possibly fix seeing he caused it with his selections and favoritism. Players especially the juniors have no trust in him and his favourtism has caused the biggest damage to these young kids.

If they keep Hook, they won't bring anyone in because they don't trust him either and probably hope it will force his hand to play the juniors which makes sense unfortunately because they have invested so much of the cap on these kids futures because they want to be like Penrith and not a club that buys has-beens from other clubs which is what Griffin is doing.

 

[I'm Hornby]

Sorry for the looooong post .

Griffin was at the Bronco's 2011 - 2014. In that period he had the Qld pack (Thaiday, Gillett, Parker, young Maguire and McCullough, Glenn, Hannant, Te'o) He had Lockyer 1 year then Wallace, Prince a young Corey Norman, Ben Hunt (Ben was on the bench 2011/12 mind you Sulli take note) so of course he had a good record in making finals. If you have a great squad like that you surely make finals no matter how bad your tactics are, you make it on talent alone. This squad finished 12th mind you in 2013 with that much quality. 2012 and 2014 they finished 8th those years. 2011 his first season they finished 3rd which was his best year. When he left they got to the GF the following year under bennett.

Griffin at Penrith (mind you after Cleary laid the platform) 2015 - 2018. They finished 11th, 6th, 7th and 5th. The 3 times in the finals they won first semi and lost the second game each finals series. After Griffin left they had a season finishing 10th (yeah cleaning up his mess) and then 1st and GF after that. So my point is he had good squads both times which made it easier for him to make finals but he could not clearly make the next step. Why get a coach who can only get you to a final and get as far as game 2 of the finals where he has lost them all?

Watching Potter make Dogs from the worst attack in their history in the first few rounds to now the entertainers shows that changing the attack is achievable if you change your ways which is something Griffin refuses to do. And picking your favourites no matter how bad they play is a huge red flag.

Prior to Griffin getting the role Saints actually first approached Fitzy and he knocked them back to honour his Roosters deal and have his final year. Then they went Flanno until the NRL blocked their path. I thought Saints are looking at a rookie who had a good record under a super coach and then a Grand Final winning coach. I though Saints are actually making some smart choices with these 2.

Then it came down to Young, Griffin and Furner. Of the 3 Griffin would be the one to go for I suppose. Picking Young who was assistant to Mary would have not gone down well at all so they had no choice so you can understand why they went Griffin. Furner was terrible every where he went.

But after 2021 and now 2022 which have been disasters surely they cannot go another year. Griffin was so confident Saints would be finals this year. He said it was his team and a team he believed will make finals so you cannot say he did not have the cattle. He chose the has-beens and worst of all kept selecting them even though we can all see how slow they are and how poor their performances have been. Griffin put trust in these guys and they let him down. Now Saints need to move on as he has caused a huge rift with the playing group that he cannot possibly fix seeing he caused it with his selections and favoritism. Players especially the juniors have no trust in him and his favourtism has caused the biggest damage to these young kids.

If they keep Hook, they won't bring anyone in because they don't trust him either and probably hope it will force his hand to play the juniors which makes sense unfortunately because they have invested so much of the cap on these kids futures because they want to be like Penrith and not a club that buys has-beens from other clubs which is what Griffin is doing.

No worries for the long post mate.

Both teams Hook coached previously were obviously decent sides however neither made finals the year prior to Hook taking the reigns at both clubs as head coach.

So clearly he had some sort of positive influence in the improvement of both teams whilst being coach.

I'm of the view that he is a decent coach however is hindered by deep rooted issues which started here long before he took over.

I think he underestimated the amount of work that had to be done to turn the team around after the Mary years.

I'm not convinced that changing the coach after this season would be anything other than a band aid solution.

 

[Miller was a legend]

No worries for the long post mate.

Both teams Hook coached previously were obviously decent sides however neither made finals the year prior to Hook taking the reigns at both clubs as head coach.

So clearly he had some sort of positive influence in the improvement of both teams whilst being coach.

I'm of the view that he is a decent coach however is hindered by deep rooted issues which started here long before he took over.

I think he underestimated the amount of work that had to be done to turn the team around after the Mary years.

I'm not convinced that changing the coach after this season would be anything other than a band aid solution.

Personally I think the both the game has passed him by now and the mess left after Mary's run at the helm, further impacted any chance of resurrecting the footy clubs performance. Having said that the management of the joint has been pathetic. It has the appearance of the management having more interest in other parts of the business and the football club is a distant thought.

It is a disgrace and every Dragons supporter has every right to be pissed off.

And this is coming from a Sharks supporter, so you know its pretty shitty if we think you guys are copping it without lube

 

[This Year?]

From about page 30 the thread has been a great read. This is why I love my fellow Saints fans.

 

[slippery5]

All I know is, 2010 Grand Final Full Time - Dragons 32 Roosters 8
Thank F*** for that.
Ohh, And thank you Bennett.

 

[Mojo]

All I know is, 2010 Grand Final Full Time - Dragons 32 Roosters 8
Thank F*** for that.
Ohh, And thank you Bennett.

I was very surprised by the depth of my emotions when we won in 2010 but I'm not too proud to admit that I wept with pride and joy.

Watching the team for the past few years has been soul destroying.

 

[mattchuot]

Sorry for the looooong post .

Griffin was at the Bronco's 2011 - 2014. In that period he had the Qld pack (Thaiday, Gillett, Parker, young Maguire and McCullough, Glenn, Hannant, Te'o) He had Lockyer 1 year then Wallace, Prince a young Corey Norman, Ben Hunt (Ben was on the bench 2011/12 mind you Sulli take note) so of course he had a good record in making finals. If you have a great squad like that you surely make finals no matter how bad your tactics are, you make it on talent alone. This squad finished 12th mind you in 2013 with that much quality. 2012 and 2014 they finished 8th those years. 2011 his first season they finished 3rd which was his best year. When he left they got to the GF the following year under bennett.

Griffin at Penrith (mind you after Cleary laid the platform) 2015 - 2018. They finished 11th, 6th, 7th and 5th. The 3 times in the finals they won first semi and lost the second game each finals series. After Griffin left they had a season finishing 10th (yeah cleaning up his mess) and then 1st and GF after that. So my point is he had good squads both times which made it easier for him to make finals but he could not clearly make the next step. Why get a coach who can only get you to a final and get as far as game 2 of the finals where he has lost them all?

Watching Potter make Dogs from the worst attack in their history in the first few rounds to now the entertainers shows that changing the attack is achievable if you change your ways which is something Griffin refuses to do. And picking your favourites no matter how bad they play is a huge red flag.

Prior to Griffin getting the role Saints actually first approached Fitzy and he knocked them back to honour his Roosters deal and have his final year. Then they went Flanno until the NRL blocked their path. I thought Saints are looking at a rookie who had a good record under a super coach and then a Grand Final winning coach. I though Saints are actually making some smart choices with these 2.

Then it came down to Young, Griffin and Furner. Of the 3 Griffin would be the one to go for I suppose. Picking Young who was assistant to Mary would have not gone down well at all so they had no choice so you can understand why they went Griffin. Furner was terrible every where he went.

But after 2021 and now 2022 which have been disasters surely they cannot go another year. Griffin was so confident Saints would be finals this year. He said it was his team and a team he believed will make finals so you cannot say he did not have the cattle. He chose the has-beens and worst of all kept selecting them even though we can all see how slow they are and how poor their performances have been. Griffin put trust in these guys and they let him down. Now Saints need to move on as he has caused a huge rift with the playing group that he cannot possibly fix seeing he caused it with his selections and favoritism. Players especially the juniors have no trust in him and his favourtism has caused the biggest damage to these young kids.

If they keep Hook, they won't bring anyone in because they don't trust him either and probably hope it will force his hand to play the juniors which makes sense unfortunately because they have invested so much of the cap on these kids futures because they want to be like Penrith and not a club that buys has-beens from other clubs which is what Griffin is doing.

Excellent write-up mate. I agree with pretty much everything. If I were to give credit to Hook about anything (and trust me that's difficult because I hate him as much as the rest of the members on this forum) I reckon he has brought the best out of Ben Hunt. Whether that is because they have a history together or Hook put faith in him as captain + halfback, it can't be a coincidence that Hunt is playing some of his best footy of his career under him. I do hope the board makes a call on Hook sooner rather than later. I imagine our recruitment or lack thereof is being stifled because every other player and their manager is asking "Who will be the coach in 2023?" I am sure not even the club knows whether that'll be Hook or not at this point in time...

 

[slippery5]

I was very surprised by the depth of my emotions when we won in 2010 but I'm not too proud to admit that I wept with pride and joy.

Watching the team for the past few years has been soul destroying.

I've wept every year since !!!!!!!!

 

[Dragon David]

Sorry for the looooong post .

Griffin was at the Bronco's 2011 - 2014. In that period he had the Qld pack (Thaiday, Gillett, Parker, young Maguire and McCullough, Glenn, Hannant, Te'o) He had Lockyer 1 year then Wallace, Prince a young Corey Norman, Ben Hunt (Ben was on the bench 2011/12 mind you Sulli take note) so of course he had a good record in making finals. If you have a great squad like that you surely make finals no matter how bad your tactics are, you make it on talent alone. This squad finished 12th mind you in 2013 with that much quality. 2012 and 2014 they finished 8th those years. 2011 his first season they finished 3rd which was his best year. When he left they got to the GF the following year under bennett.

Griffin at Penrith (mind you after Cleary laid the platform) 2015 - 2018. They finished 11th, 6th, 7th and 5th. The 3 times in the finals they won first semi and lost the second game each finals series. After Griffin left they had a season finishing 10th (yeah cleaning up his mess) and then 1st and GF after that. So my point is he had good squads both times which made it easier for him to make finals but he could not clearly make the next step. Why get a coach who can only get you to a final and get as far as game 2 of the finals where he has lost them all?

Watching Potter make Dogs from the worst attack in their history in the first few rounds to now the entertainers shows that changing the attack is achievable if you change your ways which is something Griffin refuses to do. And picking your favourites no matter how bad they play is a huge red flag.

Prior to Griffin getting the role Saints actually first approached Fitzy and he knocked them back to honour his Roosters deal and have his final year. Then they went Flanno until the NRL blocked their path. I thought Saints are looking at a rookie who had a good record under a super coach and then a Grand Final winning coach. I though Saints are actually making some smart choices with these 2.

Then it came down to Young, Griffin and Furner. Of the 3 Griffin would be the one to go for I suppose. Picking Young who was assistant to Mary would have not gone down well at all so they had no choice so you can understand why they went Griffin. Furner was terrible every where he went.

But after 2021 and now 2022 which have been disasters surely they cannot go another year. Griffin was so confident Saints would be finals this year. He said it was his team and a team he believed will make finals so you cannot say he did not have the cattle. He chose the has-beens and worst of all kept selecting them even though we can all see how slow they are and how poor their performances have been. Griffin put trust in these guys and they let him down. Now Saints need to move on as he has caused a huge rift with the playing group that he cannot possibly fix seeing he caused it with his selections and favoritism. Players especially the juniors have no trust in him and his favourtism has caused the biggest damage to these young kids.

If they keep Hook, they won't bring anyone in because they don't trust him either and probably hope it will force his hand to play the juniors which makes sense unfortunately because they have invested so much of the cap on these kids futures because they want to be like Penrith and not a club that buys has-beens from other clubs which is what Griffin is doing.

Yes, excellent post Slippery. What you said about Griffin and other coaches is well put and your second last paragraph pin points why Hook should go particularly with respect to the last sentence of that paragraph.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Ben Hunt is having a super year but I thought he had a great year when he had Widdop at 5/8 and they had that last finals appearance where they beat Bronco's and lost to Souths. After that his form dipped but he had some injuries which he carried into games. Also he copped a media bashing each time he had a bad game mentioning his salary which killed his confidence. Norman at 5/8 absolutely killed him as well as he was terrible and did not offer him any support that we thought he would, he was just a passenger collecting his weekly wage.

Giving Hunt captaincy was a great move by Griffin I will give him that and he has been excellent since. Griffin made them a more physical side but too physical where they get binned or suspended every week. So sick of seeing this consistency whether it be NRL bias or poor attitude to improve discipline. Nothing else good has come out of Griffin to be honest. His selections are terrible and worse than Mary which is what we hoped would improve but he has more favourites than Mary had getting a run.

 

[justadragon]

Excellent write-up mate. I agree with pretty much everything. If I were to give credit to Hook about anything (and trust me that's difficult because I hate him as much as the rest of the members on this forum) I reckon he has brought the best out of Ben Hunt. Whether that is because they have a history together or Hook put faith in him as captain + halfback, it can't be a coincidence that Hunt is playing some of his best footy of his career under him. I do hope the board makes a call on Hook sooner rather than later. I imagine our recruitment or lack thereof is being stifled because every other player and their manager is asking "Who will be the coach in 2023?" I am sure not even the club knows whether that'll be Hook or not at this point in time...

Now that we have missed finals for the year, it will be the longest absence between final appearances since the merger. No matter how you look at it, it has to be hurting the bottom line, attendances at games way down, memberships down and lack of support for the team down. All this adds up, whether it matters to the powers to be or not, who knows, but it is a business, and if you owned it you would be pretty worried for its future existence. As fans all I can say is " its embarrassing the situations the dragons have created of this once mighty club and its a disgrace the heartache they put their members through, whilst expecting support year after year.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Graham was sacked so they can use his wage for sales. Shows how tight Saints are. Hook is going nowhere. They won't dare waste a cent.

 

[Harry Bath]

Graham was sacked so they can use his wage for sales. Shows how tight Saints are. Hook is going nowhere. They won't dare waste a cent.

Bloody disrespectful, horribly handled by Dragons management !

 

[BLM01]

Graham was sacked so they can use his wage for sales. Shows how tight Saints are. Hook is going nowhere. They won't dare waste a cent.

Believe that PR and you would believe in the fairy godmother

 

[dannyt]

Believe that PR and you would believe in the fairy godmother

The fairy godmother is an obvious fallacy.

Now, the tooth fairy is a different story:

 

[Hard Yards]

Ben Hunt is having a super year but I thought he had a great year when he had Widdop at 5/8 and they had that last finals appearance where they beat Bronco's and lost to Souths. After that his form dipped but he had some injuries which he carried into games. Also he copped a media bashing each time he had a bad game mentioning his salary which killed his confidence. Norman at 5/8 absolutely killed him as well as he was terrible and did not offer him any support that we thought he would, he was just a passenger collecting his weekly wage.

Giving Hunt captaincy was a great move by Griffin I will give him that and he has been excellent since. Griffin made them a more physical side but too physical where they get binned or suspended every week. So sick of seeing this consistency whether it be NRL bias or poor attitude to improve discipline. Nothing else good has come out of Griffin to be honest. His selections are terrible and worse than Mary which is what we hoped would improve but he has more favourites than Mary had getting a run.

The Bronco's semi was our best chance of a title shot since Bennett, Simms played out of his skin, infact Frizell, the entire engine room played with total dominance, not forgetting we conceded first points. Peter Sterling and Lockyer thought we could be lapped after Broncos scored early helped by a Brisbane home ground. Worth noting we have never looked as organized or as dominant since we lost the combination of Widdop and Hunt, Sterling actually thought we had a team with them capable of a title, also boasted a group of forwards we have not matched since, the club has to make some hard decisions NOW as to how to repair what has been a lost number of years since, no band aid solutions.