On a Thursday evening headlined by the opening of the FIFA Women’s World Cup at Accor Stadium and day two of the fourth Ashes Test over in England – St George Illawarra and Wests Tigers players sheepishly tippy-toed onto WIN Stadium for a wooden spoon showdown.
At times the Dragons and Wests Tigers looked more like contestants on Survivor, tossing the spoon back and forward like a hot potato to see which side would blink first.
It was competitive for long periods if nothing else.
Eventually Wests Tigers blinked.
While there were signs of life for Wests Tigers, they didn’t have the class or mental capacity to keep their head above water in the clutch moments.
All this against the team running 16th – one above of them on the ladder.
When the final siren went, Dragons players looked almost shocked that they barely scraped passed the reigning and defending 2022 wooden spoon holders.
Interestingly, it’s the look they seem to give any time they do win.
That’s the problem with the Dragons and it’s been that way for far too long.
They have been anchored inside their own echo chamber for years and it looks like, they think, they’re travelling better than they actually are.
Since making the semi-finals in 2018 under Paul McGregor, the Dragons have placed 15th, 12th, 11th, 10th and currently sit 15th after leapfrogging Canterbury who have to travel to Penrith on Sunday afternoon.
In 2019, the Dragons called in Phil Gould to do an external review of the club but incredibly, Gould revealed 12 months later that the “review” really wasn’t a review at all.
“The truth of the matter is that there wasn’t really any sort of substantial review,” Gould told Wide World of Sports at the time.
“That was discussed between (former Dragons CEO) Brian Johnston and I at the time and sometime later, Brian Johnston resigned and went back to do other things.
“It’s difficult to talk about without giving away confidences but there was no real review, or what I would call a review, and I certainly wasn’t going to put my name to any document or review at that time.
“That’s why it’s been confusing for some people if a review took place.”
A legitimate review never happened.
McGregor got the sack and the Dragons replaced him with Anthony Griffin and life (or a version of it) went on at the club.
Head office replaced their vanilla ice-cream with more vanilla ice-cream.
Episode 183: Dragons Red V Podcast
Round 20: 2003 Beetson Raudonikis Medal
What McGregor and Griffin did have control over was the style the team played.
Tactics.
Player development.
Creativity.
Season 2023 has been another wasted campaign for the Dragons.
Realistically they don’t have a premiership-winning roster but they do have some great youngsters and enough representative players that they should be a little higher up the table considering how many close contents they’ve been in.
Unfortunately, they’ve been severely under-coached for many years.
The top clubs in the NRL have playbooks.
St George Illawarra have had the old “run it straight and hard, kick the bludger into the corner, turn ‘em around and bash ‘em”.
When that doesn’t work, there’s no ‘Plan B’.
We all see glimpses of what these young Dragons can do.
On Thursday night in Wollongong, Junior Amone weaved his way through traffic, looked left and while falling, flicked a pass back to his right for the enigmatic Tyrell Sloan to score.
Zac Lomax can do it.
Sloan does.
Throw the injured Jayden Sullivan in there.
Even Jacob Liddle has shined in 2023 despite being dropped at one point, out of the blue, and given no reason why it ever happened.
Incoming coach Shane Flanagan has plenty of work to do.
But his comments recently in the media have been carefully orchestrated to talk directly to the players themselves. Giving advice, even coaching, challenging them from the other side of the city as he finishes up his time as an assistant coach at Manly-Warringah.
Flanagan has a blank canvas in 2024.
A chance to rewire what these Dragons players think they know.
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