The Dragons’ culture has once again come under fire after a late-night incident between two stars which league legend Matty Johns believes will leave embattled coach Anthony Griffin scratching his head.
Winger Mikaele Ravalawa and off-season recruit Zane Musgrove were both handed breach notices and fined after a heated 6am exchange needed to broken up by teammates following a 42-24 flogging in the Charity Shield.
Ravalawa reportedly told club officials he was “too drunk to remember” while Musgrove was also understood to be heavily intoxicated.
Griffin reportedly addressed the issue at training on Tuesday and Johns believes the argument in isolation isn’t a big issue — however, he believes the squad’s intentions for the season should be questioned.
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“Put it this way, I think the biggest issue for me, blokes argue, push and shove, for me that’s not the biggest thing,” Johns said to foxsports.com.au.
“The thing I’d be disappointed in, if I was Anthony Griffin I’d be going ‘hey boys, can I just ask you, we got flogged, and then we are still drinking at six in the morning’.
“I’d be going to them and saying ‘what are you saying to me by doing that’, and if I am a Dragons fan the arguing, who cares but Dragons fans will be thinking they put in a stinker of a performance.
“That’s more to the point… If I’m Anthony Griffin I am coming away and thinking where are their heads at, are they listening to me.
“What is going on here when you have a loss like that and blokes are still going and getting on it, that’s more the point.
“The coach is thinking, just around the corner we have Round 1, and we just got hammered and we are doing that.”
The Red V had a turbulent off-season which saw two young guns, Tyrell Sloan and Jayden Sullivan hand in transfer requests.
Five eighth Junior Amone has also been stood down under the NRL’s No Fault Stand Down policy for an alleged hammer attack.
Only three players attended the club’s presentation night, placing the microscope firmly on the Dragons’ culture.
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Against the Rabbitohs on Saturday, Fox League’s Steve Roach believes the Dragons “melted in the middle” and lacked the competitive edge needed to compete for the finals.
“They just melted in the middle (in the trials). I don’t know whether they look athletic enough for me, the way the modern game is now,” Roach said.
“I don’t know how they train or anything, but just watching them. I watched them play in the Charity Shield and Souths were walking back after they were scoring going ‘how easy was that?’
“I personally don’t think it’s the coach. The coach doesn’t go out there and play for them, you’ve got to have that will and want in yourself to go out there and be good at what you do. I think they’re going to struggle.”
While in isolation, a scuffle between teammates isn’t a major problem and Fox League’s Cooper Cronk believes it is only a “minor” issue.
However, when a team isn’t performing and have only made the finals twice in the last decade, the famous Red V club will always be in the spotlight.
“It’s easy to pick it apart when things aren’t going well, but I don’t follow headlines like that, it is probably on the very minor side of things,” Cronk said.
“Ultimately, you fix culture problems through performance and not bringing attention to yourself.
“An unfortunately, the Dragons are in this position because they brought it upon themselves.”
