Dragons coach Paul McGregor paying for his players’ failings
As St George Illawarra’s $1.2m marquee player, Ben Hunt shouldn’t have the luxury of taking a week off because he’s tired. But it is this abysmal attitude that has coach Paul McGregor in the firing line, writes PAUL KENT.
Opinion
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Ben Hunt’s debt to Paul McGregor grows significantly.
It kicked up some weeks back on the captain’s run at the Dragons. Hunt was back from Origin and looked tired and dispirited and typically beaten, the way players from the losing Origin team usually return to their club.
Physically, he slumped.
His feet dragged around the captain’s run and it carried into his performance the next day against Canberra, where the Dragons were as poor as their halfback, surrendering 36-14.
So poor was the performance it put McGregor into one of those awful places coaches sometimes find themselves and from which only the strong make the right decisions.
McGregor needed Hunt playing because already too many of the Dragons best players, Gareth Widdop and Jack de Belin and James Graham and on it goes, were sitting on the sideline. Hunt was at the club suffering nothing worse than fatigue and, more than that, was one of its marquee signings.
In any conversation about what is happening here it has to be remembered that Hunt was recruited from Brisbane on a $1.2 million-a-year contract, one that works out to $50,000 a game whether he plays or sits on the sideline, as he was about to do.
Hunt’s performance against Canberra put McGregor in a spot.
He needed Hunt to be playing, but he also needed him to be playing well. If he couldn’t play well, should he continue playing him or rest him?
Was it worth resting him a week and getting him back a week later, refreshed and near the top of his game? Could he afford to?
McGregor sat with Hunt and found there was nothing more wrong than his player was tired.
“I’m going to rest you this weekend,” McGregor said.
At this point, Hunt should have reacted violently.
He should have protested. Refused to rest and said he was going to repay his teammates for helping him make it to Origin by resurrecting himself for the Dragons.
But he didn’t. Instead, he agreed and took the week off.
So last Sunday when the Dragons were putting on their socks and boots before the game they looked sideways in the dressing room to see their highest paid player in his civilian gear.
This, already, at a club where de Belin is not allowed to suit up and Widdop is still weeks away from a return.
Somehow, since then all the focus has been on McGregor.
Dragons fans are rallying again, an annual sport at Kogarah, calling for his sacking.
The board will discuss the Dragons’ stuttering performance on Tuesday, putting just enough breath in their complaints.
There are players at St George Illawarra who fight to win a premiership like they are fighting for air itself and there are others who don’t.
Sacking coaches used to be the quick fix to turn a club around.
It was always considered that it was simpler and cheaper to replace one coach then to replace four or five highly paid players.
Coaches, though, have undermined their greatest asset, as they usually do given enough time.
Now, every new coach wants his own roster. Now, the moment he takes a new job he announces the roster is not up to scratch and it will be anywhere from three years to five years, he says, before they get the roster in shape.
Brisbane, under new coach Anthony Seibold, are going through such teething problems at the moment. The Titans are about to go through it.
The good clubs resist kneejerk decisions.
Ivan Cleary returned to Penrith and struggled with two halves frightfully out of form. Back came their game and the Panthers have now won seven straight.
Ricky Stuart could barely crack two wins in a row last year when his two best players, Josh Hodgson and Jack Wighton, played just one game together and the Raiders finished 10th. This season, with 14 of 17 games together, they sit fourth.
Cronulla has struggled to find form this season but rookie coach John Morris has had to grind away with his six highest paid players missing for a combined 40 games so far. Look out when they’re all back.
Outside campaigns are made to bring down coaches with little to no thought to other influences, such as the availability of key players.
McGregor has played all season without de Belin, considered last year the best middle forward in the game, and most of it without Widdop, the key to their attack. Graham has been missing, Zac Lomax, Tyson Frizell, all have missed extended periods.
And with all this happening, Hunt took a week off.
Originally published as Dragons coach Paul McGregor paying for his players’ failings
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