Paul Kent believes Dragons coach Anthony Griffin is a dead man walking and blasted the warring factions in the club for their failure to build a winning culture at the Red V.
Griffin was told of the club’s intentions to speak to potential candidates for the Dragons head coaching position for 2024 and asked him to reapply for the top job going forward.
Kent believes the Dragons are a club that are unable to make the tough decisions required to build success both on and off the field.
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“I think they’re just a club that struggles to understand what winning is about,” Kent said on NRL 360.
“They’ve got to change a lot of things in that club. They haven’t had success for a long time now, a lot of things have got to change and yet they seem to be getting there very slowly.
“The worst thing about the Dragons I think is they try to do everything the nice way where everybody comes along and everybody is given a pat on the back on the way through. “Sometimes to change culture and the way your team’s trajectory is heading, you’ve got to upset a few people and make some tough decisions.
“The Dragons don’t seem to be a club that wants to upset anybody. They go to Anthony Griffin at the start of the year and say, ‘We’re going to talk to a few other coaches and we’re going to see how that goes’, where do they think that’s going to end up?
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“I know they’re trying to do the right thing by Griffin but it’s never ever handled that way, it never eventuates the way they want to do it.
“He’s trying to get the club going his way and getting resistance because of factions within the club.
“We all know the St. George and Illawarra factions, after 25 years as a joint-venture, still cannot get along, which is the first place it should start.
Once again, they all want to be nice rather than just getting in a room and sorting themselves out.”
However, Phil Rothfield believes the Dragons should be praised for their honesty with Griffin, which sparked a heated debate with Kent.
“I applaud St George on this, they wanted to be up front with them,” Rothfield said.
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“They wanted him to know they were keen to talk to Hornby, Flanagan, Ryles, Dean Young and they didn’t want to do it behind his back, which is applaudable.”
“But if you’re going to do that, get all your ducks in a row and go and do it,” Kent interjected.
“I wouldn’t have told the media but it would’ve got out anyway,” Rothfield replied.
“But Buzz, they had the conversation with Griffin before Round 1,” Kent shot back.
“The weekend off before the last trial and round one, that’s when they told him. Four weeks into the competition, it’s leaked out, which is concerning for the club, but they still haven’t spoken to anybody.”
“I still think they’ve done the honourable thing by telling him,” Rothfield countered.
“But get it done, get it done,” Kent said.
Rothfield believes the Dragons’ favourable draw over the next six weeks should enable the club to make a call once and for all on Griffin’s future.
“I’ve had a look at their draw the next six weeks. They’ve got the Dolphins, Titans, Raiders, Roosters, Bulldogs and Wests Tigers. That is a nice draw,” Rothfield said.
“I think after that six weeks they need to make a decision on Hook — take it or leave it. He’s got that six weeks to save his job and then see what happens.”
However, Brent Read believes the writing is on the wall for Griffin regardless of how the club fares in the next six weeks.
“He’s not going to be the coach,” Read said.
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“I know you’ve said to him, ‘We’re going to look around’, but he’s not going to be the coach. I think we all recognise that.”
Kent believes giving deadlines to coaches is the surest sign they are no longer in the club’s future plans.
“The minute you put deadlines on a coach, you give him a certain amount of rounds for a certain amount of wins, you may as well put a noose around his neck,” Kent said.
“It generally ends badly for the club because it means all effort is put into that next six weeks or whatever period is rather than the long-term future of the club.”
Read believes the doubts around Griffin’s future speaks volumes given the club has admitted they will consider other candidates.
“If you’re not convinced he’s the right man to take the club forward, that tells me you know he’s not the right man,” Read said.
In defence of Griffin Kent pointed out their record last season was good enough to play finals most years.
“Last year they were 12-12. I know they didn’t make the eight but 12-12 generally in other years has got you into the finals,” Kent said.
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However, Kent believes the Dragons have struggled to replace Wayne Bennett and need a coach who can overcome the warring factions in the joint venture club.
“When Wayne Bennett coached the Dragons, Peter Doust was the chief executive and when Wayne Bennett left the club he said, ‘The thing I’m going to miss most is that every night I could go to sleep and I didn’t have to worry’, because he knew Bennett was running the club,” Kent said.
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“Bennett just came in and was the boss and the Dragons have not been in that place since and within that situation, they’ve got the factions who are not getting along as they should be and there was a period there where I believe things were starting to go OK but they’re not getting there now.
“For whatever reason they’ve broken up. Part of it that is because one side doesn’t want to spend money and the other side said, ‘Well, if you’re not spending money, we’re not spending money’, therefore the investment is not going in.
“They’re not pulling in the same direction, there’s a lot of problems there and it’s going to take a very, very special coach to get through that, no matter who they pick.”
