WHAT was the Dragons response to the Red V slipping to a fifth straight shut loss in Magic Round?
Coach Anthony Griffin determined one of the simplest ways to deal with the membership’s present plight was for the St George Illawarra gamers and employees to get collectively and have a drink.
Personally, we’re all for it. It’s been a time-honoured custom through the years in rugby league and it usually works.
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The floor guidelines had been nobody was to exit, all of them stick collectively, let off a little bit of steam and try to struggle their manner out of the membership’s present 2-7 plight.
The solely downside?
No one had knowledgeable the Gold Coast resort the place St George Illawarra had been organising camp.
Dragons employees had been dispatched to go and purchase some booze however by the point everybody was arrange within the widespread room the shindig didn’t final lengthy.
When a resort employees member politely instructed them they weren’t allowed to drink alcohol within the space the place they had been, the Dragons needed to provide you with plan B.
At this level coach Griffin instructed all of the employees to go to his room and all of the gamers to go to captain Ben Hunt’s room.
The lack of preparation and planning most likely goes an extended solution to explaining why the Dragons have misplaced the final 5 video games by a mixed complete of 13 factors.
The Dragons have misplaced their identification and the dearth of it’s now beginning to translate into on-field outcomes.
The optics of the BBQ situation from 2021 to solely three gamers attending the membership’s presentation evening on the finish of final season all add as much as an absence of self-discipline.
Robbo will assist Ryles if he leaves | 02:19
IT’S official – Sydney Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will go well with up for a sixteenth straight season within the NRL.
The Roosters will quickly announce JWH, who will flip 35 in January, might be remaining on the Tricolours for one more 12 months.
It’s a exceptional effort from the three-time premiership-winning entrance row ahead who’s closing on the milestone of 300 NRL video games.
JWH will play his 287th NRL sport in opposition to premiers Penrith on Friday evening.
When you take into account he performs the hardest place on the sphere and has taken on all comers over the course of his profession it makes it much more spectacular.
You consider the most effective front-rowers and center forwards of the trendy period courting again to 2000 and it’s names like Shane Webcke, Petero Civoniceva, Sam Burgess, Willie Mason and Mark O’Meley who lead a crack discipline.
Given JWH remains to be going robust there’s no query he’s earned the fitting to be talked about alongside all of these champion forwards.
We beloved his interplay with Cowboys ahead Jamayne Tonua-Brown final Sunday.
“I can crack you too, G.” Brilliant.
If the Roosters are going to show their present erratic type round, we’re tipping it is going to be off the again of JWH in opposition to a Penrith pack containing James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota and Roosters-bound influence weapon Spencer Leniu.
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RUGBY league has thrown up some good cult figures through the years.
From the Eighties there have been the likes of Kerry “Buckets” Hemsley at Balmain Tigers, “Rambo” Ronnie Gibbs at Manly, Geoff Robinson at Canterbury-Bankstown and Eric “Guru” Grothe at Parramatta.
More just lately it’s been Fui Fui Moi Moi, Dean Widders, David “Wolfman” Williams and large Willie Mason.
One of the most effective tales out of Magic Round was the emergence of assured cult hero Valynce Te Whare, the 117kg Dolphins wrecking ball who solely began taking part in rugby league a tick over 18 months in the past.
Don’t get us unsuitable, Te Whare remains to be uncooked, untapped and has loads to work on.
But it was not possible to not sit again and revel in his debut sport in supercoach Wayne Bennett’s 900th sport as an NRL coach final Saturday.
The finest ingredient of Te Whare, 22, is he ticks all of the cult determine bins together with his intriguing again story.
Scouted by Dolphins recruitment guru Peter O’Sullivan taking part in rugby union in New Zealand a few years again, Te Whare was working in a manufacturing unit and taking part in park footy.
O’Sullivan instantly picked up on his energy, velocity and stability earlier than discovering he’d performed New Zealand schoolboys rugby earlier than some disciplinary points had seen him slip by way of the cracks.
Playing membership rugby for Waikato, O’Sullivan rapidly organized for a Zoom assembly with Dolphins coach Bennett.
By the tip of the assembly Bennett instructed Te Whare he might come and be his assistant coach due to how a lot he beloved to speak.
The Dolphins then signed the venture participant who had by no means performed a sport of rugby league earlier than he arrived in Brisbane final yr.
Initially, he performed within the Brisbane Rugby League competitors for the Brighton Roosters the place he scored six tries in two video games.
Te Whare was then fast-tracked into the Redcliffe Dolphins Queensland Cup aspect the place he made an instantaneous influence scoring 12 tries in 13 video games.
Along with studying the sport, Te Whare was additionally given a job as a groundskeeper at Dolphins headquarters at Redcliffe mowing the grass and portray the traces on the sphere.
This yr he moved into the Dolphins high 30 prior to creating his NRL debut in Magic Round.
Like we stated earlier, he’s a great distance from the completed product. There’s no ensures he’ll even be within the Dolphins aspect after the bye this weekend.
It doesn’t matter. Te Whare remains to be a ripping story.
Schuster ‘lengthy odds’ regardless of weight reduction | 02:23
ST GEORGE Illawarra chairman Andrew Lancaster has been busy behind-the-scenes attempting to plot the most effective soccer division construction to take the Dragons from basket case to a high eight staff.
There’s been a powerful suggestion this week St George Illawarra are taking a look at appointing ex-South Sydney and Penrith heavyweight Shane Richardson right into a normal supervisor of soccer kind of position.
Ex-Dragons participant and coach Nathan Brown’s title has additionally been talked about as a powerful contender to be the Red V’s new head of recruitment.
A St George Illawarra board assembly subsequent Tuesday is predicted to formally rubberstamp a few of the key appointments for the membership rolling ahead.
Lancaster has been extraordinarily hands-on by way of attempting to repair the litany of woes the Red V is presently experiencing.
The appointments of Richardson and Brown will surely give the membership a a lot stronger community of contacts and a a lot better soccer IQ than at current.
The subsequent main determination for St George Illawarra is who turns into the pinnacle coach in 2024.
Retired front-rower Jason Ryles has emerged as a frontrunner this week after he met with the Dragons on Monday.
Ryles presently resides in Wollongong together with his household so if the Red V take the sensible method and might ship the fitting provide then he appears an honest wager.
Premiership-winning captain Ben Hornby and premiership-winning ahead Dean Young are the opposite choices with the Dragons additionally just lately holding casual talks with Hornby.
Agent George Mimis is the negotiator taking care of Ryles, Hornby and Nathan Brown so and remains to be extraordinarily shut with board member Peter Doust.
Mimis is holding his playing cards tight nevertheless it seems as if no matter Ryles instructed the Dragons on Monday the membership was impressed.
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THE tug-of-war between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra for the companies of Jason Ryles is multi-layered.
For starters, the Roosters are old style in the way in which they do business.
When the Roosters initially signed Ryles to a three-year contract on the finish of 2021 there was a handshake association the ex-NSW and Australian entrance rower would see the total three seasons out earlier than taking up a head NRL teaching place.
Only a month in the past, the Roosters had been assured by a Ryles advisor he had no real interest in taking up the Dragons job.
The discuss then was he was a brief worth to take over from Craig Bellamy at Melbourne for the 2025 season.
It’s now received to the stage the place the Roosters have instructed Ryles they want a solution on whether or not he’s with them or not.
Don’t neglect, the Roosters had been fuming when Adam O’Brien signed with the Newcastle Knights in related circumstances again on the finish of 2019.
The different intriguing twist is Sydney Roosters kingpin Nick Politis and St George Illawarra co-owner Bruce Gordon personal property in the identical residence complicated.
It’s well-known Uncle Nick resides in one of the crucial prestigious spots within the Harbour City.
Gordon additionally owns property in the identical plush set-up however spends most of his time residing in Bermuda.
Could be entertaining in the event that they stumble upon each other in the course of the negotiations surrounding Ryles.
Source: www.foxsports.com.au