Dragons CEO can’t guarantee coach Paul McGregor’s position
As far as backing your coach goes, it was a pretty poor effort. All St George Illawarra CEO Brian Johnston would say about Paul McGregor’s future was that nothing is set in stone.
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St George Illawarra chief executive Brian Johnston has failed to guarantee under-siege Paul McGregor would start next season as head coach, only saying: “We will review the situation at the end of the year.”
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Johnston claimed the entire Dragons organisation was “hurting as much as our supporters” from this year’s horrible results.
Johnston even shouldered much of the blame himself.
Despite having five State of Origin stars, the Dragons have won just six from 17 games this season and sit 14th on the NRL ladder. Pressure will further mount should the embattled Dragons lose to old rivals South Sydney at ANZ Stadium on Friday night.
Dragons fans have taken to social media to vent their anger, even starting a petition seeking support to dump McGregor, despite the coach having another two years remaining on a contract he extended in April.
St George Illawarra would face a hefty payout by sacking McGregor and then employing a new coach. The bill could top $2 million.
Although there are no plans at present to sack McGregor, when asked could he guarantee he would start next season as St George Illawarra coach, Johnston said: “All I can say at the present stage is that we will review the situation at the end of the year. We will take it from there.
“Indirectly, the board are going to ask me ‘what’s going on?’”
Pressed again whether McGregor’s position was safe, Johnston said: “We review everything every week — the team performance, on and off the field.
“At the end of each year, we will have a comprehensive review with the emotion taken out of it and short-termism taken out of it and that will be the appropriate time, the end of the year.
“The chief executive’s role and the coach’s role — they are board decisions. We will review everything holistically, not in isolation. There needs to be a certain element of positivity in conjunction with hard work and smart work.”
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With seven rounds remaining, St George Illawarra have already crashed out of the finals race.
Johnston said he too had to take responsibility for the season.
“It (criticising McGregor) is an easy, simplistic conclusion you could come to. To be quite honest, I’m responsible for overall running of the club so I’ve got to share that responsibility as everyone else does, as coaches and players do,” Johnston said.
“We’re not shielded from the responsibility and we’re not shielded from the pressure.
We are a club and we take our tradition, history and winning, very seriously and we are all hurting at the moment.
“We need to offer as much support as we can offer to the coach, as much support as we can offer to the players and vice versa. It’s a matter of working together as a club.”
Johnston conceded the season had been exceptionally disappointing but urged fans to sick solid.
“None of us are happy. We are all doing our very best at the present stage to rectify the situation and we are hurting as much as our supporters,” he said.
“I’m certainly not criticising the fans. I’m acknowledging our supporters are loyal and passionate and are hurting at the moment. I’m acknowledging the hurt and validating the feelings that they are experiencing at the moment.
“We need a combination of things. It’s not just one aspect of football. It’s very difficult to put your finger on one aspect. It’s the combination that needs to take responsibility, everyone within the organisation.”
Dragons chairman Andrew Gordon is in Europe and was unavailable for comment.
Originally published as Dragons CEO can’t guarantee coach Paul McGregor’s position
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