The St George Illawarra Dragons have admitted issues in recruiting as the search for a coach to potentially replace Anthony Griffin in 2024 and beyond continues.
Griffin, who was confirmed to remain at the Dragons for 2023 prior to the end of the start of the 2022 season when the club took up an option in their favour, has struggled to get any semblance of good results out of the Red V.
In what is now his third season with the club, the Dragons have reportedly asked Griffin to reapply for his job if he wants to remain in the role for 2024.
That, on form and results, is looking unlikely, with the club's board still searching for a winning combination at the club, who have made the top eight just twice since the departure of Wayne Bennett at the end of the 2011 season.
It's believed the likes of former players Jason Ryles, Ben Hornby and Dean Young are leading the race to become the next head coach at the club. All three are current assistant coaches in the competition with the Sydney Roosters, South Sydney Rabbitohs and North Queensland Cowboys respectively, while Hornby and Young were both part of the 2010 premiership-winning side under coach Bennett.
Des Hasler and Shane Flanagan have also been mentioned as potential options, but the rush to sign a new coach may become real for the struggling club, with general manager of football Ben Haran telling The Dragons Den podcast that the club can't sign a marquee recruit until a coach is in position.
โUltimately, at the moment at the Dragons, you can't recruit [a marquee] because of [having no confirmed] the coach is going forward. That's just the situation we're in," Haran said.
โBut who we can recruit and retain is who wants to be a Dragon? That's the main thing.
โIf people want to be a Dragon that's a really good start for us. We've got some great kids here that want to be Dragons.
โSo if we're basing some of our decisions on who wants to be a Dragon? Then, that's important... there's going to be different situations for different people.
โThere's going to be players which we will look at and think, do we want to retain them now based on the fact that they're the right fit for the club?
โThere'll be other players that we might need to wait to see what happens with the coaching situation."
While Griffin is unlikely to be extended, the Dragons' recruitment ahead of the 2023 season was widely slammed. The late acquisition of Jacob Liddle to serve as the club's number nine helped matters, however, they ultimately found themselves unable to add versatile and agile additions to a forward pack that had one of the worst defensive records in the game.
Recruitment and retention of the club's youth has also been a major sore point among fans in recent times, but things may not be about to improve with Haran suggesting that the coach is a board decision, and that there is no timeline on an answer at this stage.
โThe coaching situation is ultimately a board decision," Haran said.
โThere's two roles that the board appoints, which is the head coach and the CEO.
โSo between Ryan [Webb], as the CEO, doing all the due diligence that he needs to do in terms of being able to give the information to the board, that certainly takes place.
โBut my understanding is that there hasn't been any time frames or anything like that.
โBut ultimately Ryan has a job to do in terms of giving the information to the board and then the board will make the decision based on what they think is best for the club.
โThat's what all of our decisions have got to be, not on any one individual."
The Dragons currently sit in 13th place with two wins from six games.
