When the membership parted methods with Paul McGregor on the finish of 2020, they had been backed right into a nook.
The coaches they needed to take over as his successor (Craig Fitzgibbon and Ciraldo) both weren’t keen to make the leap or could be seen as one other instance of jobs for the boys (Dean Younger).
Star man: However Ben Hunt is baulking at a brand new Dragons deal.Credit score:Getty
Finally, Griffin was the most suitable choice. The supply the Dragons put ahead, a two-year deal plus an possibility within the membership’s favour, mirrored their confidence, or lack thereof, within the resolution they settled with.
The three-year contract that just about each new coach will get – primarily based on a long-standing perception throughout the recreation that it takes that many seasons to rebuild a membership – wasn’t on the desk.
However the Dragons, nonetheless, believed that Griffin met the three standards the board was on the lookout for in a brand new coach.
- Somebody who was defence-minded;
- Somebody from a tradition of success;
- Somebody famend as a strict disciplinarian.
In his first two seasons in cost, Griffin has fallen brief in all three classes.
The defence of the Dragons has been poor this 12 months. Even in knocking off the lowly ranked Titans over the weekend, the Purple V conceded 26 factors. It was the Titans’ third-highest rating of the 12 months.
When McGregor left in 2020, the Dragons leaked a median 22.6 factors per recreation. It’s why a excessive precedence was placed on a coach who might assist plug the holes.
Sadly for the Dragons the common factors conceded per recreation has risen to 24.3 in 2022 – and that in itself is an enchancment on the 25.7 factors the earlier 12 months.
The second standards was a coach from a tradition of success. Griffin’s file – a 55.5 per cent win file over greater than 170 video games at Penrith and Brisbane – was spectacular.
St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin is below scrutiny.Credit score:NRL Photographs
However what is usually misplaced when dissecting the success of Griffin-coached groups is how they carry out after he’s gone. The Broncos made a grand remaining in 2015, 12 months after he was moved on for Wayne Bennett. That’s not to say the Broncos had been higher off with out Griffin, however they had been clearly a powerful membership after he left.
As soon as the mud had settled on the intercourse tape saga that ripped the Panthers aside, they too made a grand remaining inside two years of Griffin’s exit.
Griffin, a proud product of Rockhampton, has turned to fellow Queenslanders and his former gamers to assist him steer the ship.
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The membership’s recruits mirrored that. Andrew McCullough, Francis Molo, Josh McGuire, Moses Mbye, Jaydn Su’A, Tautau Moga, Michael Molo, Trent Merrin, Israel Folau … all Queenslanders or gamers that had performed below him.
Griffin even fought strongly, in opposition to the needs of the membership, to maintain Corey Norman for one more season earlier than finally letting him go to the Tremendous League on the finish of final 12 months. His substitute, Talatau Amone, has confirmed a value successor.
Griffin has a file of 18 wins from 46 video games in command of the Dragons – a 39 per cent win ratio. McGregor managed a 46.6 per cent win price in his seven-year tenure as head coach.
The knock on McGregor was that maybe he was too near the gamers, and that his bond with the gamers usually clouded his judgement and skill to impose a set of requirements required to achieve success on the elite degree.
Griffin got here in with a fame as a no-nonsense coach – the ‘strict disciplinarian’ the Dragons had been after.
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That arguably went out the window the evening a dozen or so gamers ignored his directive and gathered at Paul Vaughan’s home for a barbecue throughout COVID-19 lockdowns final 12 months.
The one time the group has ignored his directives since is once they have thrown warning to the wind regardless of a heavy concentrate on a easy attacking recreation plan. Whereas moments have been few and much between, it is the very best the Dragons have appeared all season.
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