BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

There is still a lingering question whether Paul McGregor is a good coach. He spent a long time at St George Illawarra. Maybe he needs some time in the Super League to prove many of us wrong.

Perhaps he just needs a beer and some time with his family and friends.

Many Dragons fans have been begging for McGregor’s sacking for ages. Everything has been his fault. Now he’s gone. They can’t blame Paul McGregor any longer.

As the siren went at Bankwest Stadium on Thursday night, as the Dragons upset the high-flying Parramatta Eels, a wave of energy was released.

Negative, positive, it was relieved.

McGregor is a top bloke.

Even his most enthusiastic haters surely smiled for a moment as the entire Dragons squad came over to the sideline to give the outgoing coach a cuddle in his last match in charge of the Big Red V.

Incredibly, some experts believe the club should rid the head coach of the ”selection committee” and someone else that runs recruitment.

The question is, if it’s not good enough for the new coach, why did McGregor have to put up with it?

Parramatta, as they do when they sit atop a ladder, walked into Bankwest Stadium thinking they’d simply clean the Saints up. They went through the motions and tried hard but the Dragons were just better.

You can analysis the game as hard as you can but at the end of the day, the better team won.

St George Illawarra tonight didn’t look like a side sacking their coach.

Maybe that was the whole point.

How many times in 2020 have we seen the Dragons play some good rugby league when the game was gone or there was no expectations on them?

Is that on the coach or the players?

Starts with the coach, right?

But let’s not forget what Paul McGregor has given to the club he loves.

Seriously… the bloke was even born in Wollongong!

He spent a decade as a player at the Steelers and was captain in the merged outfit’s first grand final in 1999.

A gun centre that played for Australia and New South Wales.

He’d give his left nut for the Dragons.

And now he’s gone.

Was he the right coach?

Maybe… maybe not.

Are we in Sydney allowed to talk about what Craig Bellamy’s Melbourne Storm just did to the Roosters?

But he always put the Dragons first even when he didn’t have to.

In a final defence of Paul McGregor, if the crowd will allow it…

Who could have done better with an average squad?

Fitting farewell 👏#NRLEelsDragons pic.twitter.com/7166ZhP0hQ

— NRL (@NRL) August 14, 2020

It’s not like we were dealing with the Harlem Globetrotters over here or anything.

At the end of the day, McGregor gave his guts.

Many smarter people would love to know how those same supporters would go coaching a first grade NRL side.

Either way…

In his own words, at the press conference at Parramatta on Friday night: ”It’s been a series of privileges”.

Now he’s finally off to see his dad for the first time in three months.

That’s Paul McGregor.

Cheers, Mary.

See you at the pub.

@woodward_curtis