St George Illawarra Dragons a mess on and off the field
Phil Rothfield, Sports Editor-at-large, The Daily Telegraph
an hour ago
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ST George Illawarra coach
Paul McGregor and chief executive
Peter Doust could be forgiven for hoping the Parramatta Eels scandal keeps dragging on.
While the spotlight has been on the continuing debacle in Sydney’s west, the Dragons have managed to escape the blowtorch and any serious media attention.
Without the Eels, St George Illawarra would be a back page story most days of the week.
This club’s performances against the Titans on Friday night and its previous game against Manly were nothing short of pathetic.
No wonder that about a third of one of their smallest Kogarah crowds of 8256 (it looked more like 6000) walked out in disgust in the second half.
Look through statistics and it’s easy to identify there is a major problem with their attack. No scoop there. The Dragons have scored only 227 points this season, more than only the Newcastle Knights.
Only the Knights have a worse for-and-against.
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The Dragons’ past two performances have been well off the pace.
Drill down a bit further and it becomes clearer the playmakers are the problem in that no other club spends more time in the opposition 20 without scoring.
They take an average of almost 20 tackles (19.8) to get a try inside the opposition 20.
In comparison, the Brisbane Broncos average one try for every 8.6 tackles (the best in the competition) and 10 teams average fewer than 12 tackles.
Friday night was the eighth time this season they have scored two tries or fewer, and one of those was in the last minute once the game was gone.
In their past two games they have been outscored 68-18 by teams that were below them on the ladder.
Joel Thompson takes on the Titans defence last Friday night.
All season their second halves have been especially concerning and raise questions about their fitness.
They have been outscored 210 to 79 in the second half this season and have won the second half just once (12-8 v Melbourne in round 15, when the Storm were without their Origin players).
On Friday night they didn’t have a clue how to score against the Titans from attacking areas.
The forwards are getting them enough field position to score but there is no creativity and no cohesion with the football and they are kicking poorly on the fifth tackle.
So who do we blame? McGregor as head coach has to accept most responsibility.
Interestingly, the club announced in February it would start negotiations to extend McGregor’s contract. Nothing has happened since.
The Dragons are performing poorly on and off the field.
Off the field the club is performing as poorly as the team. The club owes the NRL $4 million.
The Dragons have shrinking crowds and membership. Their recruitment could be the worst in the NRL.
Doust has been there longer than any other club CEO in the game.
He has to accept as much responsibility as the coach.
Maybe, just like the club has kept them out of the spotlight for so long, the Dragons need to have a serious look at their management too because both on and off the field they are a terrible mess.
