Story today in SMH by Michael Chammas re Hook, that he has the full support of Chairman Craig Young. So he’s as good as gone!
Quote :
An influential St George Illawarra figure reached out to Cameron Ciraldo’s representatives last month to gauge the Penrith assistant coach’s appetite in taking over from Anthony Griffin at the Dragons.
Sources with knowledge of discussions confirmed the conversation had taken place, but the Dragons were unaware at the time just how advanced Phil Gould’s plan to lure Ciraldo to Belmore was.
For the second time in three years, the answer from Ciraldo was ‘thanks, but no thanks’.
At least it explains chairman Craig Young’s carefully-worded statement to News Corp last month following the Herald’s revelations that things had begun to turn sour under Griffin’s watch.
“He has my full support,” Young said at the time.
And perhaps Griffin does, but not everyone at the Dragons is convinced. This isn’t another story about Ciraldo. It’s not even about Griffin, entirely.
It’s about a club and the all too familiar predicament it finds itself in, hoping things will turn when all signs point to the opposite outcome.
Complicating matters is a realisation that their best player, Ben Hunt, is baulking at a new deal and would like his future tied to that of Griffin, who coached him as a junior back at the Broncos.
Then there is the future of young gun Jayden Sullivan, who has attracted the interest of rival clubs under the assumption he will ask for a release if Hunt extends to play on as halfback.
When the club parted ways with Paul McGregor at the end of 2020, they were backed into a corner.
The coaches they wanted to take over as his successor (Craig Fitzgibbon and Ciraldo) either weren’t willing to take the plunge or would be seen as another example of jobs for the boys (Dean Young).
Ultimately, Griffin was the best option. The offer the Dragons put forward, a two-year deal plus an option in the club’s favour, reflected their confidence, or lack thereof, in the decision they settled with.
The three-year contract that almost every new coach gets – based on a long-standing belief within the game that it takes that many seasons to rebuild a club – wasn’t on the table.
But the Dragons, nonetheless, believed that Griffin met the three criteria the board was looking for in a new coach.
Someone who was defence-minded;
Someone from a culture of success;
Someone renowned as a strict disciplinarian.
In his first two seasons in charge, Griffin has fallen short in all three categories.
The defence of the Dragons has been poor this year. Even in knocking off the lowly ranked Titans over the weekend, the Red V conceded 26 points. It was the Titans’ third-highest score of the year.
When McGregor left in 2020, the Dragons leaked an average 22.6 points per game. It’s why a high priority was put on a coach who could help plug the holes.
Unfortunately for the Dragons the average points conceded per game has risen to 24.3 in 2022 – and that in itself is an improvement on the 25.7 points the previous year.
The second criteria was a coach from a culture of success. Griffin’s record – a 55.5 per cent win record over more than 170 games at Penrith and Brisbane – was impressive.
But what is often lost when dissecting the success of Griffin-coached teams is how they perform after he is gone. The Broncos made a grand final in 2015, 12 months after he was moved on for Wayne Bennett. That is not to say the Broncos were better off without Griffin, but they were clearly a strong club after he left.
Once the dust had settled on the sex tape saga that ripped the Panthers apart, they too made a grand final within two years of Griffin's exit.
Griffin, a proud product of Rockhampton, has turned to fellow Queenslanders and his former players to help him steer the ship.
The club’s recruits reflected that. Andrew McCullough, Francis Molo, Josh McGuire, Moses Mbye, Jaydn Su’A, Tautau Moga, Michael Molo, Trent Merrin, Israel Folau ... all Queenslanders or players that had played under him.
Griffin even fought strongly, against the wishes of the club, to keep Corey Norman for another season before eventually letting him go to the Super League at the end of last year. His replacement, Talatau Amone, has proven a worth successor.
Griffin has a record of 18 wins from 46 games in charge of the Dragons – a 39 per cent win ratio. McGregor managed a 46.6 per cent win rate in his seven-year tenure as head coach.
The knock on McGregor was that perhaps he was too close to the players, and that his bond with the players often clouded his judgement and ability to impose a set of standards required to be successful at the elite level.
Griffin came in with a reputation as a no-nonsense coach – the ‘strict disciplinarian’ the Dragons were after.
That arguably went out the window the night a dozen or so players ignored his directive and gathered at Paul Vaughan’s house for a barbecue during COVID-19 lockdowns last year.
The only time the team has ignored his directives since is when they have thrown caution to the wind despite a heavy focus on a simple attacking game plan. While moments have been few and far between, it's the best the Dragons have looked all season.
