Club offials at Dragons leave Paul McGregor hanging

Paul McGregor’s future at the Dragons is a hot topic but if he was looking for support, it wasn’t coming from his own club.

Dragons coach Paul McGregor is interviewed following the Round 3 loss to the Warriors at Central Coast Stadium. Picture: AAP

St George Illawarra officials were ducking and diving on Monday. Chairman Andrew Gordon politely pointed us in the direction of freshly minted chief executive Ryan Webb, wary of fuelling any speculation around the coaching future of Paul McGregor.

Webb, only a matter of weeks into the job, couldn’t be found, failing to respond to text messages and phone calls. McGregor’s future was all the rage and if he was looking for public support, it wasn’t coming from his own club.

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Gordon rarely speaks to the media and no doubt would have expected his chief executive to take up the running at a time when the club’s supporter base is in a mutinous mood.

Webb is the greenest chief executive in the NRL, but is about to get a baptism of fire at the Dragons, where fans have been clamouring for change for some time.

They sat painfully through the club’s losses over the opening two weeks of the season, took some deep breaths while the game was in hibernation, and then watched on restlessly through an abject performance against the New Zealand Warriors last weekend.

McGregor has two years remaining on his deal and his future likely hangs on results in coming weeks, starting with Monday’s game against Canterbury at Bankwest Stadium. The Dragons have a board meeting in a fortnight but the directors don’t need to come together to pull the trigger. They can do it over the phone if need be.

McGregor’s future may rest in the hands of someone who isn’t even on the board — the club’s $785m part-owner Bruce Gordon, head of WIN Corporation.

McGregor’s payout would be measured in seven figures and while the 91-year-old Gordon has money to burn, you don’t become one of the country’s wealthiest people by throwing it away.

According to The Rich List in The Australian this year, Gordon sat 142nd in terms of wealth.

While Bruce Gordon doesn’t sit on the board of the Dragons — that role falls to his son Andrew — The Australian was told that big decisions are still funnelled though him for his imprimatur.

Sacking the coach would be a big decision, in part as it would require the WIN side of the joint venture to stump up hefty funds along with St George Leagues Club, the other partner in the club.

The leagues club invested $500,000 in the Dragons last year and presumably WIN Corporation did the same to make up the shortfall in running costs. They’d need to put that in again and more should they move on McGregor.

As well as a payout, there would be the added expense that comes with hiring a new coach. Bruce Gordon usually spends the winter months in Bermuda, but it is believed he is still in Australia due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Given his other business interests, it seems hard to believe he would have taken a significant interest in the Dragons’ travails over the opening week of the season. Yet he may have the ultimate say on whether McGregor retains his role in coming weeks, the game against Canterbury this weekend as crucial as any in recent memory for the St George Illawarra coach.

Bulldogs coach Dean Pay is feeling the heat as well but he has inherited a roster that few saw playing finals football this year. His side, at least, will be bolstered by the return of Kieran Foran from shoulder surgery.

Foran will give the Bulldogs the on-field leadership they gravely need; the sort of leadership and guidance the Dragons and McGr­egor were hoping to get from Ben Hunt and Corey Norman.

With those two in the halves, the Dragons’ were expected to contend for the top eight and while that lofty goal isn’t out of reach, it is slowly slipping away.

McGregor has time, but the Dragons need to start winning and doing so quickly. A wide-ranging review at the end of last year resulted in the Dragons overhauling their coaching staff, bringing on a leadership expert and adding a mind and performance coach in former pro surfer Matt Griggs.

Griggs worked with the Dragons before COVID-19 but hasn’t returned since. A call wouldn’t go astray if the Warriors game is any indication. McGregor needs all the help he can get at the moment.