The Rumours Thread

[Dragons4me]

I know myself DP, I get angry and frustrated and god knows I have vented my spleen on here, especially about our games and certain player performances, but when it comes to recruitment, we are so far removed from what actually happens that its not worth getting upset about it anymore. But I do see a shift in recruiting in the junior grades which personally I think its the only way out of this mess. We have really homed in on some young gun recruits, lets get our pathways spot on and the future will look brighter. We may as well learn our lesson now that with possibly 20 teams in the comp , our elite players are coming from within and nowhere else, worked for Penrith and it will work for us.

Good post as usual and great discussion. My hope moving forward is that Twiggy's financial backing puts us in the top echelon of clubs and back on top where the Dragons belong. How good would it be for the Dragons to be like the Panthers? Confident of any win and also of making the finals just about every year?

 

[Dragon David]

Good post as usual and great discussion. My hope moving forward is that Twiggy's financial backing puts us in the top echelon of clubs and back on top where the Dragons belong. How good would it be for the Dragons to be like the Panthers? Confident of any win and also of making the finals just about every year?

Yes, that would indeed be a great feeling every year. Got to believe that it will happen and it will.

 

[Reddragon]

Good post as usual and great discussion. My hope moving forward is that Twiggy's financial backing puts us in the top echelon of clubs and back on top where the Dragons belong. How good would it be for the Dragons to be like the Panthers? Confident of any win and also of making the finals just about every year?

That’s the model!

 

[<StGeorgeDragons>]

I foresee some random early year signings of a few old hands floating around. No idea who but some genuine squad filler. Nothing to get excited about but that’s about all the club can muster.

The group will probably overachieve again with the head coach but finals will be another year away while ‘we don’t have the cattle’.

More interested to see if we can discard Lawrie and Mikaele right now but has there even been any talk of Blake on the chopping block. Surely the coach can see he is done.

 

[jay mac]

I know myself DP, I get angry and frustrated and god knows I have vented my spleen on here, especially about our games and certain player performances, but when it comes to recruitment, we are so far removed from what actually happens that its not worth getting upset about it anymore. But I do see a shift in recruiting in the junior grades which personally I think its the only way out of this mess. We have really homed in on some young gun recruits, lets get our pathways spot on and the future will look brighter. We may as well learn our lesson now that with possibly 20 teams in the comp , our elite players are coming from within and nowhere else, worked for Penrith and it will work for us.

Great post. Along these lines as well, I have been thinking about how a very few teams have remained dominant over the past 5 or so years in the salary cap era. For all the rhetoric around the Roosters having “brown paper bags” etc etc, this isn’t necessarily true. My thoughts are that the salary cap is actually creating an uneven playing field and is advantageous for teams like the Panthers due to their strong pathways, and the Storm due to their strong culture and systems. Put simply the “have nots” are the teams, like the Dragons, who must pay top dollar for recruits to remain competitive. Meanwhile, the Panthers just continue to roll first graders off the production line to replace the guys that get a better offer somewhere else. Similarly, the Storm seem to have that knack (again, due to culture and systems) of developing discards into some of the best players in the comp. Hell, one of ‘em just won the Dally M.

 

[maestro1]

Current article on the Panthers stating they have an 11 (yes 11) person retention and recruitment team. And the focus is on retention. Only bought in about 5 players during their 5 GF run. All retention/recruitment /development personnel are on the same page.

Meanwhile back at the ranch ......... Fxck we are a uselessly managed club. We need to be a club that every fibre of our being is set on "success" and every decision is about that success. Only employ the best available for EVERY job. Move all the anchors on and bring in the people who get shit done. It is so fxcking frustrating watching the Storm, Roosters, Panthers of this world and watching how professional they are and how successful they are. I've been watching old games from the Bath era and later the Bennett era and noticing how so much has changed. The crowds were unbelievable, we seemed invincible on the field, our management had a real desire for success. What the fxck happened. Did I fall asleep for 15 years and while in my slumber, these management fxckers ruined our club with shit decision after shit decision, cronyism, nepotism and down right WRONG appointments. WHEN IS HARAN BEING REMOVED??

 

[justadragon]

Good post as usual and great discussion. My hope moving forward is that Twiggy's financial backing puts us in the top echelon of clubs and back on top where the Dragons belong. How good would it be for the Dragons to be like the Panthers? Confident of any win and also of making the finals just about every year?

Thanks mate, there is no reason why we cant have very strong junior grades. We just have ignored and poorly managed these grades with the wrong people for years. If you notice now we have enticed so many juniors from the Penrith camp, why because they can probably see a pathway at the Dragons rather than Penrith atm. We really have a limited time to make sure we dont F$#K up these next few years. If you were a halfback in the Penrith system you know you are not going to get to the NRL say for the next 6-8 years or even longer, come to the Dragons and make a name for yourself,,,because you want to be part of the Dragons not a mercenary for money.

 

[justadragon]

Current article on the Panthers stating they have an 11 (yes 11) person retention and recruitment team. And the focus is on retention. Only bought in about 5 players during their 5 GF run. All retention/recruitment /development personnel are on the same page.

Meanwhile back at the ranch ......... Fxck we are a uselessly managed club. We need to be a club that every fibre of our being is set on "success" and every decision is about that success. Only employ the best available for EVERY job. Move all the anchors on and bring in the people who get shit done. It is so fxcking frustrating watching the Storm, Roosters, Panthers of this world and watching how professional they are and how successful they are. I've been watching old games from the Bath era and later the Bennett era and noticing how so much has changed. The crowds were unbelievable, we seemed invincible on the field, our management had a real desire for success. What the fxck happened. Did I fall asleep for 15 years and while in my slumber, these management fxckers ruined our club with shit decision after shit decision, cronyism, nepotism and down right WRONG appointments. WHEN IS HARAN BEING REMOVED??

The club got sold to the wrong people in the first place, and having Bennett there was a fluke and we F$#ked up that appointment as well. A ground up rebuild along with the COE is the best we can hope for now and pray like never before we get the right people managing the lot.

 

[Jubilee]

Current article on the Panthers stating they have an 11 (yes 11) person retention and recruitment team. And the focus is on retention. Only bought in about 5 players during their 5 GF run. All retention/recruitment /development personnel are on the same page.

Great point. We complain about the salary cap on buying established players but forget that there is no limit on how much a club can spend on *finding and recruiting* young players.

 

[since77]

Great point. We complain about the salary cap on buying established players but forget that there is no limit on how much a club can spend on *finding and recruiting* young players.

Unfortunately under McGregor and Griffin we became a club that valued aging and many frankly "past it" players under the BS guise of "experience" instead of blooding and trusting our young players coming through, many of whom are now flourishing at other clubs. We're now paying the penalty for years of woefully bad decisions.
Then you look at the Panthers, where Ivan Cleary rarely hesitates in bringing in a young gun because he knows the systems they've spent time setting up in the past are now churning out players who for the most part are "ready to go".
I do trust that Flanno is working on this but he has started well and truly behind the 8 ball and it will be slow work until it starts to bear fruit. But remember when we were all mocking Gould and his famous "5 year plan"? Might have taken more than 5 years but it has certainly set their club up to be a powerhouse. Our junior base is second only to the Panthers and with proper management there's no reason why we can't harness our junior base in the same way. Key words in that are "proper management" - a concept the Dragons have shown they are rarely capable of.

 

[Gardenia]

Unfortunately under McGregor and Griffin we became a club that valued aging and many frankly "past it" players under the BS guise of "experience" instead of blooding and trusting our young players coming through, many of whom are now flourishing at other clubs. We're now paying the penalty for years of woefully bad decisions.
Then you look at the Panthers, where Ivan Cleary rarely hesitates in bringing in a young gun because he knows the systems they've spent time setting up in the past are now churning out players who for the most part are "ready to go".
I do trust that Flanno is working on this but he has started well and truly behind the 8 ball and it will be slow work until it starts to bear fruit. But remember when we were all mocking Gould and his famous "5 year plan"? Might have taken more than 5 years but it has certainly set their club up to be a powerhouse. Our junior base is second only to the Panthers and with proper management there's no reason why we can't harness our junior base in the say way. Key words in that are "proper management" - a concept the Dragons have shown they are rarely capable of.

Can someone please clarify our situation with the junior base? I also thought we would have a massive junior base but have read comments from people associated with the club saying we do not have a very big junior base? Is the Illawarra technically our base or not?

 

[RedVee]

Can someone please clarify our situation with the junior base? I also thought we would have a massive junior base but have read comments from people associated with the club saying we do not have a very big junior base? Is the Illawarra technically our base or not?

St G + Wollongong/G7 is roughly the same size as Newcastle + Hunter region according to a post in a thread on LU.
I’ll see if I can find it and link.

 

[Dragon David]

Current article on the Panthers stating they have an 11 (yes 11) person retention and recruitment team. And the focus is on retention. Only bought in about 5 players during their 5 GF run. All retention/recruitment /development personnel are on the same page.

Meanwhile back at the ranch ......... Fxck we are a uselessly managed club. We need to be a club that every fibre of our being is set on "success" and every decision is about that success. Only employ the best available for EVERY job. Move all the anchors on and bring in the people who get shit done. It is so fxcking frustrating watching the Storm, Roosters, Panthers of this world and watching how professional they are and how successful they are. I've been watching old games from the Bath era and later the Bennett era and noticing how so much has changed. The crowds were unbelievable, we seemed invincible on the field, our management had a real desire for success. What the fxck happened. Did I fall asleep for 15 years and while in my slumber, these management fxckers ruined our club with shit decision after shit decision, cronyism, nepotism and down right WRONG appointments. WHEN IS HARAN BEING REMOVED??

The club got sold to the wrong people in the first place, and having Bennett there was a fluke and we F$#ked up that appointment as well. A ground up rebuild along with the COE is the best we can hope for now and pray like never before we get the right people managing the lot.

Unfortunately under McGregor and Griffin we became a club that valued aging and many frankly "past it" players under the BS guise of "experience" instead of blooding and trusting our young players coming through, many of whom are now flourishing at other clubs. We're now paying the penalty for years of woefully bad decisions.
Then you look at the Panthers, where Ivan Cleary rarely hesitates in bringing in a young gun because he knows the systems they've spent time setting up in the past are now churning out players who for the most part are "ready to go".
I do trust that Flanno is working on this but he has started well and truly behind the 8 ball and it will be slow work until it starts to bear fruit. But remember when we were all mocking Gould and his famous "5 year plan"? Might have taken more than 5 years but it has certainly set their club up to be a powerhouse. Our junior base is second only to the Panthers and with proper management there's no reason why we can't harness our junior base in the same way. Key words in that are "proper management" - a concept the Dragons have shown they are rarely capable of.

I agree with you three and would like to say -

I know that there are others but the two clubs that stand out for me in the past two decades are the Storm and Panthers.

The Panthers under Gould realised the depth and strength of their juniors and have put a massive amount of time and money in creating the best that the Panthers can provide for the proper development of these juniors and to this day, they have been able to have so much success. As Maestro1 has mentioned, they have 11 staff involved in recruitment and retention so that whoever in the juniors show potential and promise they would set aside and fully develop them and ensure they have the pathways to play NRL one day.

The Storm I would like to put my emphasis of their success on the 2024 Coach of the Year - Craig "Bellyache" Bellamy. He has said these things -
"If you want something you have to work hard for it and if you don't work hard for it, it is not worth doing". He says that he has to make sure he does his job the best he can and then hopefully people will follow from that. He has created a culture that is envied and admired by all codes and fans. It is a system which helped the talents of Cronk, Slater, Smith and now Hughes and many others. It is his drive and ability to re-invent, adapt, lead and overcome adversity in the pursuit of success.

His motto is "the harder you work, the luckier you get". "work hard and - always - be respectful and humble".

The Storm's culture is built on the values of family, accountability, hard work, respect and passion.

For the Dragons to become more successful in the future, they should adopt a lot of the stuff that the Panthers have shown to work and the Storm for their never ending years of success and dedication to hard work.

 

[maestro1]

Our board has to become more nimble, astute, hardworking, resilient and goal orientated. The time of sitting back and basking in past glories is well and truly fxcking over. Make a positive difference or FXCK OFF.

 

[justadragon]

Our board has to become more nimble, astute, hardworking, resilient and goal orientated. The time of sitting back and basking in past glories is well and truly fxcking over. Make a positive difference or FXCK OFF.

Everything you have said they are not, I dont know if it applies to all of them BUT !!!

 

[CozDragon]

Is it though?
Bula did jack shit this season, he didn’t follow up the promising season he had last year.
Luai the jury is out, I don’t think he’s going to be able to lead a team.
Galvin looks great, he’ll be playing for roosters or broncos in no time.
Api, meh he has his moments but can also be horrible.
It’s an exciting spine no doubt but will likely be inconsistent under Benji and Tigers management.
Bottom 4.

Api also had a lot of brain explosions this year which resulted in him getting sinbinned quite a few times.

 

[Dragon David]

Api also had a lot of brain explosions this year which resulted in him getting sinbinned quite a few times.

A lot through frustration I should imagine particularly from him being a premiership winner at the Panthers.