Revealed: Red V considered FOURTEEN other coaches before re-signing McGregor
St George Illawarra powerbrokers considered 14 coaching options before rewarding Paul McGregor with a two-year contract extension in April.
Names like Geoff Toovey, Anthony Griffin, Trent Barrett, Jason Ryles and Adam O’Brien were all considered prior to the board rubberstamping McGregor’s tenure until the end of 2021.
With only two victories from their last 11 matches, you’ll be hard pressed finding a Dragons supporter who isn’t currently calling for Mary to be axed.
So why did the Dragons board opt to extend McGregor’s deal to make him the longest-serving St George Illawarra coach in the history of the joint venture?
There’s a variety of reasons.
One of the most obvious is McGregor’s unwavering loyalty to the Red V’s playing roster despite this season’s poor results.
“Leave my players alone,” is a line the Dragons coach routinely defers to.
Just look at the Ben Hunt situation. While most experts have panned the Dragons $1 million halfback missing the must-win game against the Panthers last Friday, McGregor has repeatedly gone into bat for him.
There’s also the fact McGregor has been a key influence in building the Dragons roster since taking the reins as head coach in mid-2014.
Along with director of recruitment and pathways Ian Millward, Mary has been a major influence on building the Red V roster.
And at the start of this season, most experts had them pegged as at least a top eight if not a top four list.
Rewind back to 2016 when the Dragons had an average season before announcing an all-encompassing football department review.
There were rumblings about a divide between McGregor and the Dragons playing group and there were some genuine issues there.
The Dragons then implemented some major changes to the way the football department operated.
The result was McGregor continuing to evolve as a coach to the point where the Dragons were considered one of the better teams last year with one of the NRL’s stronger rosters.
Sure this year has been a car crash and there’s an array of wide-ranging reasons as to why it’s gone so pear-shaped.
In the Dragons dressing room after the lame second half against the Panthers, Red V captain Cameron McInnes let the playing group know in no uncertain who was responsible for the poor performance.
McGregor then stepped to the fore and explained how there was a couple of roads the Dragons powerbrokers could decide to explore from here.
One option would be to get rid of him as coach, which doesn’t seem to make sense since they only re-signed him in April until the end of 2021.
Another would be to shake-up the playing roster.
But the best option, McGregor explained, was for the entire club to bind together and try and fight their way out of a bad situation.
It’s this kind of leadership that underlines why the Dragons players are now being forced to defend their head coach.
Like most NRL coaches, McGregor is a workaholic who routinely punches out 14-hour days at the coal face.
Tuesday’s board meeting is by no means an exercise designed to sharpen the knives on the Dragons head coach.
Of course football department performances will be the main ticket item but there is no incognito witch hunt to try and torpedo McGregor.
https://coupler.foxsports.com.au/ap...r/news-story/be870cd888217440a8c8b85b9e17dc79
