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Saint Des ??

Maddragon99

Juniors
Messages
2,075

Now it’s official Des has been sacked at Manly if our great & mighty club doesn’t pull out all the stops to sign him we may as well just take 2023 off in protest.

I’m happy if he wants to start fresh in 2024, I’m sure he’ll need a break from the game after all the BS he’s been dealing with. Also it’ll give him able time to get our roster in order so we can compete from 2024.

I’ll admit it, I’m excited! 😆
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,965
This is the Dragon's one and only opportunity to lift the club out of its horrible predicament and all that is needed is for our Board to act. We need to have someone do some clever horse trading; do we have such a person? Do we need to bring in such a person?

If it was up to me, I would be doing all I can to get the Turbo brothers into our squad. I would do all I can to clean out players we do not want to keep by trading them with players who want to leave Manly. For example, maybe a Hunt + Sloan trade for Tommy Turbo and a Su'A for Jake.

1. T Turbo
2. Matt Freagai
3. Ramsey
4. Lomax
5. Ravalawa
6. Amone
7. Sullivan

Makes our backline look so much stronger.

8. J Turbo
9. Robson
10. De Belin
11. Suli
12. Turbo
13. Bird

14. Mbye
15. F Molo
16. Lawrie
17. M Molo

A very competitive team for 2023.
 

hewi

Bench
Messages
4,205
Well, my other Saints have sacked their dud coach - just three months after handing him a two year contract extension. Three years of treading water is over before the current could take us over the falls.
Come on, Dragons board - you can do it! It's time to put Griffin in the bin.

It’s very interesting what St Kilda have done it would appear that they are hungry for success and decided that mediocrity won’t cut it. St George should take a page out of their book I think.
 

SAP58

Juniors
Messages
2,060
What our side needs, in fact the whole club, is a hard arse to come in and rectify our disipline both on and off the field. We havent had someone since Bennett who the players knew who was boss. Des is 62 in February and he may only have a couple of years of coaching left but he could make such a difference to this side. Fix the repeated six again and arm grabbing in defence. Unfortunately I have no confidence that our Board will act, we can all see it but the Board think of themselves before the club. We live in hope.
 

justadragon

Bench
Messages
4,103
I would love to see Hasler at the Dragons, but he likes to operate unrestricted, the Bulldogs went to the salary cap wall for a while and are only just recovering thanks to Gould, I dont know if Des could operate with our BOD anyway. Bennett was the only one to put them in their place.
 

dungay dragon

Juniors
Messages
1,346
Albert has an opportunity to stamp himself as a shrewd and ruthless leader .
Cut loose Hook and get Hasler to the Dragons
Get him clean out all the porkers from top to bottom
Remember back two seasons ago the Turbos were seriously considering leaving the Eagles and the Dragons were well in the running , especially the Manly like sorroundings of the Gong , But they had to come as a double deal .
Hoping and Dreaming but wont happen...we deal in mediocrity
 

matPORTS

Juniors
Messages
648
Well, one of the things Dousty seemed to love about having Bennett onboard was that he and the board could take a back seat with full trust that Wayne had the footy side under complete control.

I guess it sort of works if Des wants to operate unrestricted.

But, much the same as Des at the Dogs 2012-2017, we ended up going to the salary cap wall in 2009-2011 (a lot of that may have been due to the Gasnier come back as well). We are still trying to recover (albeit this is probably more due to the incompetence of Price/Mary), as are the Dogs (now five years and three coaches later for them).

Yes, much the same as 2009-2011, I think the foundation is there for us to have a decent run in the next three years. We need a hard nosed operator to come in and fix our discipline, have the nouse to come up with game plans to suit the opposition week-to-week (and adjust on the fly as necessary), and attract talent to fill obvious gaps currently in our roster (Jake T fixes one of those gaps).

But we can't think short-term either. Getting the Turbo Bros (one or all) would be a massive coup for the club to compliment our current line up (Tom and Jake both about to enter the prime of their careers) - but I think a Shane Flanagan as head coach (Jamie Soward as assistant) would be a much better long term option for us.

Our board doesn't have the nous unfortunately!
 

Dragon David

First Grade
Messages
9,319
Des's head space won't be on football for a while so I think that he will give coaching a break for at least a year and be more able to focus on the sport maybe in 2024. All this drama at Manly will play on his mind and him coming to us next year won't happen in my opinion. Hopefully he can be signed up for 2024 and onwards.

To me Hasler would be better than Hook. He is the type of coach that can get the best out of the players but can put players and officials offside but hey, that is what we need.

Forget about Tom and Jake who are both tied to the Sea Eagles for a long time. I cannot see either of them coming to the Dragons. I know that there are some administrators at Manly who are doubting Tom to give them value for money seeing that he is injury prone and a lot of cap money is tied up with him on their books. I think they like the Manly area too much to leave.

I'd take a full back of the calibre of Dylan Edwards who maintains his fitness and is on the field more than not but he will be a Panthers full back for some time.

In the meantime, my hope is for the Dragons to sort out their problems which are also pretty bad.
 

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