Anthony Griffin says he won’t cut and run on the Dragons, and insisted there is no need to bring in a new voice to salvage what is left of the season.
“Not at all; I don’t think so,” Griffin said after his side’s defeat to bottom side Wests Tigers.
St George Illawarra slumped to their fifth straight loss on Sunday afternoon in what was an ordinary game. Skipper Ben Hunt went as far as to label the performance “dumb” and “not NRL standard”.
They had the chance to pinch victory with 90 seconds remaining when Moses Suli charged to the line from close range, only to pass the ball at the last second for Mikaele Ravalawa who was bundled into touch.
It gets no easier for the Dragons when they head to Townsville next weekend to take on a Cowboys team coming off a Magic Round upset win over the Sydney Roosters.
Griffin’s future has been a hot topic all season, and it has now become accepted by most in the game it is a matter of not if but when the Dragons pull the trigger on him.
Under pressure: Dragons coach Anthony Griffin.Credit: Fairfax Media
It was on the corresponding weekend last year that Canterbury parted ways with Trent Barrett and brought Mick Potter into the caretaker’s role.
When pressed on whether his message was still getting through to the playing group, Griffin said on Sunday: “There’s a knife-edge in it. We could be sitting here being in a whole different position. I can’t answer that.”
Griffin dropped centre Zac Lomax and shifted his best player, Hunt, to dummy-half so he could accommodate Jayden Sullivan.
Sullivan was injected into the game against the Tigers midway through the first half and came up with a couple of tries.
Ben Hunt pulled no punches in his assessment of the Dragons’ performance.Credit: Getty
It is hard to see where the improvement will come from for the men in the Red V.
“Honestly, we were just dumb today,” Hunt said. “Some of the things we did were just not NRL standard, silly penalties and then we got a good ball set and we dropped it or it went out on tackle two or three.
“We just can’t do that. We didn’t give ourselves a chance. We talked all week about competing high and building pressure. [But] the first good-ball sets we had in each half we dropped the ball over the sideline. I feel like if we’re a bit smarter, we could have put them away earlier.”
Sullivan was sticking by Griffin and said, “a change won’t change anything”.
“I have a lot of belief in ‘Hook’ and he has a lot of belief in me. I’ll support Hook all the way,” Sullivan said.
“Unfortunately, he’s not on the field, we’re the ones on the field putting in the performance. He takes it on the chin. Credit to him, he doesn’t bring any negative energy to training.”
The Dragons have put the feelers out for several candidates, including former prop Jason Ryles, who is an assistant with the Sydney Roosters, and South Sydney assistant Ben Hornby.
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