The St George Illawarra Dragons have made a one and four start to the 2022 NRL season, and the wolves are chanting for coach Anthony Griffin's head, however, a contract extension before a ball was kicked this year will cost the club dearly.
Raising eyebrows, the Red V elected to invoke Griffin's club option in his contract, ensuring he would remain with the Dragons until the end of the 2023 season.
However, after a dismal finish to the 2021 season, and an even worse start to the new one, combined with a number of seemingly baffling calls at the selection table, Griffin's job is looking unsecure.
While the club are yet to show any sort of support for the besieged coach in a public forum, it's believed they will back him for the time being after extending his contract by a year only two months ago.
It's an extension which will make Griffin hard to remove though, with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting he could be in for a $475,000 payout if the Red V's board were to act on the former Brisane Broncos and Penrith Panthers mentor.
Griffin is reportedly one of the lowest-paid coaches in the NRL on his current deal, and WIN Coorportation, who own the Dragons could easily take the financial hit if the club decided to move, according to the reports.
The Dragons have won just one of their past 13 games, and the heat is only about to be turned up, with the club to face the Knights, Roosters, Tigers and Storm in the next month - anything less than two wins from that group will be seen as a major failure for the club.
It's a far cry from their Round 1 performance when they managed to get the better of the New Zealand Warriors in a high-scoring encounter on the Sunshine Coast. The club have since lost to the Penrith Panthers, Cronulla Sharks, Parramatta Eels and South Sydney Rabbitohs, the last of those being a horror game at Homebush on Saturday, and the last two of those fielding a revised team with Moses Mbye at fullback and Jack Bird in the halves, despite their starts to the season at utility and second row respectively.
The selection calls, as well as parts of the recruitment drive in the off-season, left fans scratching their heads, and the calls which had the Dragons well entrenched in the bottom four on predicted ladders are beginning to look more and more accurate by the week.
The contract year runs from Oct1 to Sep 30, so Mr Griffin has received half of this year’s pay. So $475K represents 18 months pay ie about $300K per year.
I can understand why the owners thought that it made sense to exercise their option for 2023, a couple of months back. It flagged that they had confidence in the coach, in a way that just words would not have done.
If the board now decides to remove him, they can write off the $300K for 2023 as having been a sensible attempt to stabilise the club and playing group. It has failed, but it I don’t think it has cost them an “enormous” amount. I think it was well worth trying.