State of the Nation

[Saints Forever]

Ladies and Gentlemen
I am somewhat confused at all the negativity after a loss to a team that is clearly a top four contender.

Our squad is not a top 4 squad.

Last year we nearly won the wooden spoon.

The new coach has done his very best to recruit quality players.

Unfortunately, we have not been competitive in the player market, and will rely heavily on the promotion of juniors for the next two seasons.

Last time I looked at the ladder we have 4 wins and 4 losses.

We have to be realistic when assessing our team’s chances of playing finals footy.

Three games in twelve days.

Suli knocked out in first play of the game.

Then a string of penalties giving the Roosters field position. The signs were ominous. They had lost three of their last four games. They were hungrier but also far more talented.

Our problems are inherently structural.

No joint venture club has succeeded to date, nor will they.

The club needs to make a monumental decision.

One ground.

One base.

One name.

Illawarra Steelers ?

Illawarra Dragons ?

St George Dragons ?

Whatever the decision is, it needs to be made very soon, otherwise the club will be relocated interstate or will eventually fold all together.

 

[Nanadragon]

The only argument I can put forward is that we did win the premiership in 2010 with the joint team. Then Bennett leaves us with recommendations of the worst coach possible in Steve Price.
Truthfully I don't know the answer to our problems but I agree with you that we should be one thing or the other. Won't happen in my lifetime though.

 

[Dragon David]

Ladies and Gentlemen
I am somewhat confused at all the negativity after a loss to a team that is clearly a top four contender.

Our squad is not a top 4 squad.

Last year we nearly won the wooden spoon.

The new coach has done his very best to recruit quality players.

Unfortunately, we have not been competitive in the player market, and will rely heavily on the promotion of juniors for the next two seasons.

Last time I looked at the ladder we have 4 wins and 4 losses.

We have to be realistic when assessing our team’s chances of playing finals footy.

Three games in twelve days.

Suli knocked out in first play of the game.

Then a string of penalties giving the Roosters field position. The signs were ominous. They had lost three of their last four games. They were hungrier but also far more talented.

Our problems are inherently structural.

No joint venture club has succeeded to date, nor will they.

The club needs to make a monumental decision.

One ground.

One base.

One name.

Illawarra Steelers ?

Illawarra Dragons ?

St George Dragons ?

Whatever the decision is, it needs to be made very soon, otherwise the club will be relocated interstate or will eventually fold all together.

The only argument I can put forward is that we did win the premiership in 2010 with the joint team. Then Bennett leaves us with recommendations of the worst coach possible in Steve Price.
Truthfully I don't know the answer to our problems but I agree with you that we should be one thing or the other. Won't happen in my lifetime though.

I am in agreement with the both of you Saints Forever and Nanadragon. There are those who have said that we should not have merged and the St George Dragons be as one club. Fair enough that under Bennett the St George Illawarra Dragons won the premiership in 2010 and the year before and after we did quite well. Also in 1999 when the Steelers and the Dragons merged we made the grand final and imo we should have won it.

Who knows how many grand finals we might have reached from 1999 to now as the St George Dragons - we might have won 3 in that time? The other thing is, if we joined the Super League we could have been great, who knows?

But yes, the way we are currently structured over a great expanse and having two grounds isn't doing us any favours. These past 12 years has been devastating insofar as the end of year results are concerned.

I don't know what the solution is and I don't think that the Board knows as well otherwise I wouldn't be writing this shit. I'm certainly giving Flanno a couple of years to show his worth and I hope that he succeeds. These big losses though have me worried.

 

[Parko1310]

I've been calling for this for ages. It is the clear solution that is impossible to ignore, but that a lot of the fan base, and clearly most of those within the 4 walls of the Dragons do not want to face.

St George traditionalists need to take their rose coloured glasses off and realise that Kogarah is an absolute shit hole. Kogarah is the easier of our two grounds for myself to get to as well, so there's no location bias here, just facts. WIN needs an upgrade terribly badly, but is no where near the level of a shit hole as Kogarah is. The pressing issue is this: they both are in need of upgrades, but the location of Kogarah makes it near impossible to get a meaningful upgrade, whereas the location of WIN makes it very much plausible. At the end of the day though, I don't care which one it is but they need to pick one and commit to achieving an upgrade for the one they choose. If they think they are somehow a chance of getting a meaningful upgrade at Kogarah, great, I just don't see it. WIN looks possible to me. These shitty grounds we currently have are going to be no where near acceptable in 25-30 years time, but the split home ground makes it impossible for upgrades to happen because we only play 5-6 games a year at each venue, so why would the govt spend money on that? The other thing is this: just look at crowd numbers compared to Kogarah v WIN, its not even a competition. Time slots at Kogarah this year are great too, and I am still extremely confident crowd numbers at WIN will be better this year by some margin, so just shutting that spiel down now. Not to mention, does anyone honestly think Kogarah gets over 13,000 to the Friday 6pm game against the Warriors last week? Hmmm...

 

[matPORTS]

I'm not going to comment on the political landscape that is the merger. What's done is done. We are the St George Illawarra Dragons. We have two bases (Kogarah & Wollongong). We have a management team & board of directors that are also split down the middle of the merger (and those same characters and their anointed successors will be there for a some time to come). The only thing we can hope for is that the management team & board are making decisions in the best interest of the club overall, and not their own individual agendas (and yes I agree this is clearly very questionable given what's been happening over the past 12 seasons).

Regardless - the overall footballing operation of the club competes in the same competition(s) and under the same governance as that of all the other 16 clubs. We've lacked a competent head coach for a long time now, who can help us to work through that governance and maximise our potential to be successful. Flanno is probably the best we could have gotten for this job.

Our lack of success over the past 12 years, the mistakes that have been made in retention + recruitment, lack of overall discipline and standards from the bottom to the top of the footballing department, unfortunately aren't going to turn around in one single season. I'm giving Flanno at least 2-3 seasons to just to be able to point this ship back in the right direction.

It's becoming very clear that we aren't going to have much success in the open market. So, we're going to need to promote from within. The most promising juniors we have are probably 2-3 seasons away from making to & then regular first grade. Most of us here already know this. Flanno no doubt knows this as well.

Our loss the the other day is mere proof that we have more work to do in terms of driving standards through the club. It's not acceptable to go from beating one of the most competitive teams of the last couple of years to getting absolutely spanked in the one regular season game where you should DEFINITELY be up and about. Again, Flanno no doubt knows this.

The big losses also have me concerned. But I'm hoping that this is also a consequence of tougher training standards starting to be driven. There are no doubt certain individuals within the camp currently whom just aren't getting the message about what it takes to be consistently successful in a competition, where the standards of those whom show up in the top four most years are consistently high. Hopefully, the penny eventually drops, or Flanno has the tough conversations with these individuals that they aren't meeting the standard of what it takes to wear the Red V.

 

[TheRev]

Winning fixes everything, and we always play our best footy at WIN.. if I was a player, WIN would be an ideal base, minimal traffic and beach life.. and our centre of excellence will be there.... still only 2hrs away if you rly need to visit Sydney..

But politically it is dynamite, and im not sure it would ever get over the line..

 

[Illusion]

For me problem is the Board , bunch of leechers sucking the place dry with what ever they can get out of the joint .......... Young still hanging around , Doust back again sucking more blood , Andrew Gordon , his sister on the board , Millward still there somewhere doing what the F**K he does , a split board one year you run it the next year we run it ........ A CEO that does nothing but a puppet to the Boys Club ......... We are really no chance of moving ahead with this lot calling the shots ........ So they either piss off the St George side of it or the Illawarra side of it and let one club run the joint ..........

 

[twinkletoes]

I'm not going to comment on the political landscape that is the merger. What's done is done. We are the St George Illawarra Dragons. We have two bases (Kogarah & Wollongong). We have a management team & board of directors that are also split down the middle of the merger (and those same characters and their anointed successors will be there for a some time to come). The only thing we can hope for is that the management team & board are making decisions in the best interest of the club overall, and not their own individual agendas (and yes I agree this is clearly very questionable given what's been happening over the past 12 seasons).

Regardless - the overall footballing operation of the club competes in the same competition(s) and under the same governance as that of all the other 16 clubs. We've lacked a competent head coach for a long time now, who can help us to work through that governance and maximise our potential to be successful. Flanno is probably the best we could have gotten for this job.

Our lack of success over the past 12 years, the mistakes that have been made in retention + recruitment, lack of overall discipline and standards from the bottom to the top of the footballing department, unfortunately aren't going to turn around in one single season. I'm giving Flanno at least 2-3 seasons to just to be able to point this ship back in the right direction.

It's becoming very clear that we aren't going to have much success in the open market. So, we're going to need to promote from within. The most promising juniors we have are probably 2-3 seasons away from making to & then regular first grade. Most of us here already know this. Flanno no doubt knows this as well.

Our loss the the other day is mere proof that we have more work to do in terms of driving standards through the club. It's not acceptable to go from beating one of the most competitive teams of the last couple of years to getting absolutely spanked in the one regular season game where you should DEFINITELY be up and about. Again, Flanno no doubt knows this.

The big losses also have me concerned. But I'm hoping that this is also a consequence of tougher training standards starting to be driven. There are no doubt certain individuals within the camp currently whom just aren't getting the message about what it takes to be consistently successful in a competition, where the standards of those whom show up in the top four most years are consistently high. Hopefully, the penny eventually drops, or Flanno has the tough conversations with these individuals that they aren't meeting the standard of what it takes to wear the Red V.

I wish we had a Shane Richardson running the ship instead of …. what’s his name ?? Ryan Webb who seems to go MIA

 

[thebigredv]

The board want us to believe a coach can pull us out of it. If they try enough coaches one will eventually work.
That is their sole contribution.
Not even a review.
Each failure is allowed to roll onto the next.

Meanwhile, our kingdom burns.

Never in the history of rugby league has the Dragons club been treated with such disdain.
We are not a destination club.
We are a last resort for rugby league's most misfit players.

 

[2010Dragons]

Here is the solution.
All player contracts are immediately suspended.
New performance KPI are introduced.
Players are paid match payments only. (Interim measure)
If they win games BIG bonus will be given out after every game.
If they keep losing, players will be drops and match payments will be cut in half.
When the team starts performing successfully like all good teams.
New contracts will be negotiated.
If they can't get their shit together then they will be directed to me for a good baseball bat bashing.

This solution can't fail.

 

[Saints Forever]

Here is the solution.
All player contracts are immediately suspended.
New performance KPI are introduced.
Players are paid match payments only. (Interim measure)
If they win games BIG bonus will be given out after every game.
If they keep losing, players will be drops and match payments will be cut in half.
When the team starts performing successfully like all good teams.
New contracts will be negotiated.
If they can't get their shit together then they will be directed to me for a good baseball bat bashing.

This solution can't fail.

Except that the real problem is we don’t have the cattle

 

[2010Dragons]

Except that the real problem is we don’t have the cattle

Sometimes you need to whip the cattle or cull the useless cattle with a baseball bat to rattle the cages and put the under performing cattle on notice.
send Blake and Ben to me and they will be playing like immortals in 1 session.