WHAT was the Dragons response to the Red V slipping to a fifth straight close loss in Magic Round?
Coach Anthony Griffin decided the best way to handle the club’s current plight was for the St George Illawarra players and staff to get together and have a drink.
Personally, we’re all for it. It’s been a time-honoured tradition over the years in rugby league and it often works.
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The ground rules were no one was to go out, they all stick together, let off a bit of steam and try and fight their way out of the club’s current 2-7 plight.
The only problem?
No one had informed the Gold Coast hotel where St George Illawarra were setting up camp.
Dragons staff were dispatched to go and buy some booze but by the time everyone was set up in the common room the shindig didn’t last long.
When a hotel staff member politely told them they weren’t allowed to drink alcohol in the area where they were, the Dragons had to come up with plan B.
At this point coach Griffin told all the staff to go to his room and all the players to go to captain Ben Hunt’s room.
The lack of preparation and planning probably goes a long way to explaining why the Dragons have lost the last five games by a combined total of 13 points.
The Dragons have lost their identity and the lack of it is now starting to translate into on-field results.
The optics of the BBQ issue from 2021 to only three players attending the club’s presentation night at the end of last season all add up to a lack of discipline.
Robbo will support Ryles if he leaves | 02:19
IT’S official – Sydney Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will suit up for a 16th straight season in the NRL.
The Roosters will soon announce JWH, who will turn 35 in January, will be remaining at the Tricolours for another 12 months.
It’s a remarkable effort from the three-time premiership-winning front row forward who is closing on the milestone of 300 NRL games.
JWH will play his 287th NRL game against premiers Penrith on Friday night.
When you consider he plays the toughest position on the field and has taken on all comers over the course of his career it makes it even more impressive.
You think of the best front-rowers and middle forwards of the modern era dating back to 2000 and it’s names like Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Sam Burgess, Willie Mason and Mark O’Meley who lead a crack field.
Given JWH is still going strong there’s no question he’s earned the right to be mentioned alongside all of those champion forwards.
We loved his interaction with Cowboys forward Jamayne Tonua-Brown last Sunday.
“I’m happy to crack you G.” Brilliant.
If the Roosters are going to turn their current erratic form around, we’re tipping it will be off the back of JWH against a Penrith pack containing James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota and Roosters-bound impact weapon Spencer Leniu.
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RUGBY league has thrown up some brilliant cult figures over the years.
From the 1980s there were the likes of Kerry “Buckets” Hemsley at Balmain Tigers, “Rambo” Ronnie Gibbs at Manly, Geoff Robinson at Canterbury-Bankstown and Eric “Guru” Grothe at Parramatta.
More recently it’s been Fui Fui Moi Moi, Dean Widders, David “Wolfman” Williams and big Willie Mason.
One of the best stories out of Magic Round was the emergence of guaranteed cult hero Valynce Te Whare, the 117kg Dolphins wrecking ball who only started playing rugby league a tick over 18 months ago.
Don’t get us wrong, Te Whare is still raw, untapped and has plenty to work on.
But it was impossible not to sit back and enjoy his debut game in supercoach Wayne Bennett’s 900th game as an NRL coach last Saturday.
The best element of Te Whare, 22, is he ticks all the cult figure boxes with his intriguing back story.
Scouted by Dolphins recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan playing rugby union in New Zealand a couple of years back, Te Whare was working in a factory and playing park footy.
O’Sullivan immediately picked up on his power, speed and balance before discovering he’d played New Zealand schoolboys rugby before some disciplinary issues had seen him slip through the cracks.
Playing club rugby for Waikato, O’Sullivan quickly arranged for a Zoom meeting with Dolphins coach Bennett.
By the end of the meeting Bennett told Te Whare he could come and be his assistant coach because of how much he loved to talk.
The Dolphins then signed the project player who had never played a game of rugby league before he arrived in Brisbane last year.
Initially, he played in the Brisbane Rugby League competition for the Brighton Roosters where he scored six tries in two games.
Te Whare was then fast-tracked into the Redcliffe Dolphins Queensland Cup side where he made an immediate impact scoring 12 tries in 13 games.
Along with learning the game, Te Whare was also given a job as a groundskeeper at Dolphins headquarters at Redcliffe mowing the grass and painting the lines on the field.
This year he moved into the Dolphins top 30 prior to making his NRL debut in Magic Round.
Like we said earlier, he’s a long way from the finished product. There’s no guarantees he’ll even be in the Dolphins side after the bye this weekend.
It doesn’t matter. Te Whare is still a ripping story.
Schuster ‘long odds’ despite weight loss | 02:23
ST GEORGE Illawarra chairman Andrew Lancaster has been busy behind-the-scenes trying to devise the best football department structure to take the Dragons from basket case to a top eight team.
There’s been a strong suggestion this week St George Illawarra are looking at appointing ex-South Sydney and Penrith heavyweight Shane Richardson into a general manager of football type of role.
Ex-Dragons player and coach Nathan Brown’s name has also been mentioned as a strong contender to be the Red V’s new head of recruitment.
A St George Illawarra board meeting next Tuesday is expected to formally rubberstamp some of the key appointments for the club rolling forward.
Lancaster has been extremely hands-on in terms of trying to fix the litany of woes the Red V is currently experiencing.
The appointments of Richardson and Brown would certainly give the club a much stronger network of contacts and a much greater football IQ than at present.
The next major decision for St George Illawarra is who becomes the head coach in 2024.
Retired front-rower Jason Ryles has emerged as a frontrunner this week after he met with the Dragons on Monday.
Ryles currently resides in Wollongong with his family so if the Red V take the smart approach and can deliver the right offer then he looks a decent bet.
Premiership-winning captain Ben Hornby and premiership-winning forward Dean Young are the other options with the Dragons also recently holding informal talks with Hornby.
Agent George Mimis is the negotiator looking after Ryles, Hornby and Nathan Brown so and is still extremely close with board member Peter Doust.
Mimis is holding his cards tight but it appears as though whatever Ryles told the Dragons on Monday the club was impressed.
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THE tug-of-war between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra for the services of Jason Ryles is multi-layered.
For starters, the Roosters are old school in the way they do business.
When the Roosters initially signed Ryles to a three-year contract at the end of 2021 there was a handshake arrangement the ex-NSW and Australian front rower would see the full three seasons out before taking on a head NRL coaching position.
Only a month ago, the Roosters were assured by a Ryles advisor he had no interest in taking on the Dragons job.
The talk then was he was a short price to take over from Craig Bellamy at Melbourne for the 2025 season.
It’s now got to the stage where the Roosters have told Ryles they need an answer on whether he’s with them or not.
Don’t forget, the Roosters were fuming when Adam O’Brien signed with the Newcastle Knights in similar circumstances back at the end of 2019.
The other intriguing twist is Sydney Roosters kingpin Nick Politis and St George Illawarra co-owner Bruce Gordon own property in the same apartment complex.
It’s well-known Uncle Nick resides in one of the most prestigious spots in the Harbour City.
Gordon also owns property in the same plush set-up but spends most of his time residing in Bermuda.
Could be entertaining if they bump into one another in the middle of the negotiations surrounding Ryles.
