Former Canberra coach David Furner has emerged as a candidate for the vacant St George Illawarra job, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Furner is currently an assistant coach at Newcastle, but previously coached the Raiders between 2009-2013.

Furner is one of the leading contenders among a wishlist that includes Anthony Griffin, Kevin Walters and Laurie Daley.

Interim coach Dean Young did no harm to his hopes of securing the role on a full-time basis after guiding the Dragons to a 28-24 win over Brisbane in his first game at the helm.

The Dragons have two winnable games coming up against the Titans and Cowboys, which could further boost Young's prospects of landing the top job.

Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon is considered by many as the best candidate without senior coaching experience and would be on the Dragons wishlist, however, he is committed to seeing out his contract at the Roosters before entering the hunt for a senior role.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Laurie Daley I think would be a good choice.

    As the NSW coach he always seemed to like the dragons players (Dugan, BMoz, Frizzel, Merrin, De Belin). He arguably coached in one of the toughest eras for NSW 2013-17 against the likes of Smith Slater Cronk Thurston etc etc, But he had a 40% win percentage. He won the series in 2014 for the blues first time in almost 10 years.

    I’d think he would be great for establishing a good attack between the halves and outside backs. I’d personally like to see the Dragons replace Euan Aiken with either Josh Dugan or Jack Bird. Both players would be returning home (Dugan plaued for St George for 5 years and Bird started his career in the Dragons juniors), both are on big deals with their current clubs trying to get them off the books and willing to subsidise their salaries. Dugan would cost 350k and Bird likely 400k/500k.
    Laurie was a fan of Dugan as NSW coach and also played Bird off the bench for NSW and Bird looked terrific that series.

    Particularly Bird, I think him and Lomax would make an incredible centre pairing and with Dufty now established at fullback you have a solid start to the attack

  2. We need a natural strike centre to play on the left. Bird is more of a right side type.
    None of those coaching candidates excite.

Comments are closed.