NRL 2021: Paul McGregor says Jack de Belin saga cost him Dragons job
As Jack de Belin prepares to reignite his NRL career, former Dragons coach Paul McGregor hopes the two-and-a-half year trial doesn’t end his.
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It cost him his job, but Paul McGregor hopes it doesn’t cost him his career.
And in the wake of Jack de Belin getting the green light to make his rugby league return as soon as this weekend, his former St George Illawarra coach has spoken passionately about his own burning desire to get back into NRL coaching.
McGregor also opened up about the human cost the club’s decision to stand by the star forward during his two-and-a-half year trial took on everyone at the Dragons, and how it ultimately broke the team’s spirit which culminated in his sacking last August.
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“I read somewhere a distracted team will never reach its potential and we were distracted the whole time,” McGregor conceded.
“There is no doubt about that.
“Jack is the type of person that lights up a room. He is the energy.
“It is not an excuse but it is the truth.
“Could we have handled it a bit better? Possibly.
“But it was sort of a test before the lesson — because no one has had this happen to them before (the NRL’s no-fault stand down policy).”
And that is why McGregor is calling on the NRL to make a change to the policy going forward.
“My honest opinion, and I am pretty strong about it, is that if they want a stand down policy, and they make the decision to do that, they should then pay for that player and let the club spend their cap,” McGregor said.
“You can’t make decisions for clubs and penalise them for decisions they don’t make, and that is what has happened in this case.
“It was something that had never happened before yet they made a rule and the club paid the price.”
And McGregor had no regrets for backing de Belin.
“I don’t regret it. Purely because these guys are humans, they are not robots. And there is a care of duty and wellbeing,” McGregor said.
“You have to remember, Jack was playing in my reserve grade team back in 2012. So I have known that kid since he left school and have been his coach since he was in reserve grade.
“I am not saying I wouldn’t do it for anyone else, but I felt the right thing was to give him his time to have a chance to defend himself. Everyone has a right to a presumption of innocence.”
McGregor, who is coaching the NSW under 19s this year, said he was sitting in his bank manager’s office on Thursday when his son Kade called to tell him about the breaking news: “He said, ‘have you heard?’ And I said, ‘what?’
“And he told me … I sort of just went quiet. He knew what impact that had on us.
“I guess I just thought … I don’t know the word I am looking for, but it I just felt a sense of that feeling where you know you have done the right thing.
“And if you think about it, back in 2018, if the club, I, the board, just pushed Jack aside and basically sacked him, well, what would that look like when he went to court?
“A business decision, or perceived guilt?
“Either way it would not have read well.
“And we thought it was going to be a six or three month process and it is going into its third year now. I am just … it is like I am walking up and down on the same spot at the moment.”
He said he had sent de Belin a text message but was yet to hear back.
Asked if he believed it had cost him his coaching career, he added: “Well, hopefully not my career but it cost me my job.
“But I want to coach again.
“You have to remember this team that we had got beaten in the second week of the semis by a field goal in 2018 and we had four guys unavailable.
“And we never put the same team on the park after that. And we led the comp for 16 weeks that year and Jack was coming off his best year ever.
“Again, you have to move on, but don’t tell me it doesn’t affect a team playing to its potential.”
But he maintains “no way in the world” has he lost his passion for coaching.
“It was just a part of life that was a lesson,” he said.
“I have nothing bad to say about anyone because it doesn’t get you anywhere.
“All it does is make you sour.
“So I am comfortable to treat it as a lesson and I am positive and optimistic something else will come along.
“Things happen for a reason.”
DE BELIN’S 40-MINUTE NRL AUDITION
By Dean Ritchie
“He is not going to die wondering.”
St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin believes Jack de Belin is ready to overcome two-and-a-half years of hell and cut loose in his anticipated rugby league return.
“Jack is committed and hungry to succeed,” Griffin said. “Jack wants to get back as quickly as possible.”
With sexual assault charges dropped after two trials, de Belin, now 30, will return to rugby league in St George Illawarra’s NSW Cup game against Western Suburbs on Saturday at Lidcombe Oval.
He will play 40 minutes after receiving approval to play from the NSWRL.
Griffin will appraise de Belin’s performance before determining whether to keep his star player in reserve grade for an additional week or draft him into the NRL for Saints’ Thursday night game against Brisbane at Kogarah’s Jubilee Stadium on June 3.
The selection developments will play out as de Belin is offered welfare counselling from St George Illawarra and the NRL to ensure a smooth shift back to top-level football.
De Belin’s last rugby league game was St George Illawarra’s finals loss to South Sydney in 2018.
“We will address his welfare and do what we can for whatever he needs to get his frame of mind right and to help him. It’s one of the unknowns, isn’t it?” Griffin said.
“I know one thing: he’s not going to die wondering. He is very determined.
“Jack wants to get back as quickly as possible and, from a club point of view, we want to see him playing first grade as quickly as possible.
“We won’t be wasting any time with it. Whenever he’s ready, we will put him back in. None of us know until he starts playing again and we will get the first answer on Saturday.
“Two-and-a-half years out of the game is a long time, but as long as he can stay injury-free, and once he gets some miles in his legs, he will pick it up pretty quickly.
“The biggest thing will be getting used to the physical contact again. They don’t lose their class or ability to play, it’s just the speed and physicality of the game.”
Success is just what the Dragons need after they were left in purgatory during his absence, unable to sign a like-for-like replacement or overcome the distraction of the saga on the field.
After finishing seventh on the ladder in 2018, de Belin’s final season, St George Illawarra was eliminated in week two of the finals and hasn’t been back.
The Dragons sank to 15th in 2019 on the back of two five-game losing streaks. Their 2020 season was over almost as soon as it had begun when they lost their opening four games and couldn’t recover, finishing 12th and costing former coach Paul McGregor his job.
De Belin trained with the NRL squad in both of those seasons but was moved to the NSW Cup in January.
He has kept remarkably fit and won’t, according to Griffin, struggle with the increased speed of rugby league.
“There is more endurance required but Jack is a really fit athlete. The way the game is played at the moment might actually suit him,” Griffin said.
“There’s a lot more ball in play than 2018 but I’m not sure it’s that much faster.
“We will start on Saturday, when he will get 40 minutes in the NSW Cup. He’s been training really well for the last eight weeks.
“All our performance staff are really impressed with his physical fitness.”
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Originally published as NRL 2021: Paul McGregor says Jack de Belin saga cost him Dragons job
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