{"id":297913,"date":"2023-05-18T07:49:25","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T07:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297913"},"modified":"2023-05-18T08:58:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T08:58:36","slug":"hes-mad-legends-pick-to-sort-out-dragons-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297913","title":{"rendered":"'He's mad': Legend's pick to sort out Dragons mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Fittler<\/a> has revealed the man he believes could rescue the Dragons<\/a> from its current predicament as the club searches for a new coach.<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to Anthony Griffin's sacking<\/a>, a representative of current Argentina rugby union coach \ufeffMichael Cheika<\/a> approached the Dragons about their interest in the Super Rugby winner – however, the Dragons have since indicated he's not a serious contender<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fittler believes Cheika – who coached Lebanon at the Rugby League World Cup – could make an impact at the struggling NRL club.<\/p>\n

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"\ufeff(If) Michael Cheika put up his hand, \ufeffmate he'd be able to sort out a board," he told Wide World of Sports' Freddy & The Eighth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe's mad, got a bit of madness in him."<\/p>\n

Fittler, who has also previously coached \ufeffLebanon as well, believes Cheika's experience with the country could have him primed a joint-venture club like the Dragons.<\/p>\n

"He understands politics because \ufeffhe's grown up with it his whole life through the nature of being Lebanese," he said. "It's unreal, I coached the team, it's hilarious, they're the best but it's tricky."<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

Since the Dragons won the competition in 2010, the club has yet to see any premiership success.<\/p>\n

Wayne Bennett left in 2011 for the Knights with Steve Price, Paul McGregor, Dean Young (interim) and Griffin all coaching since his departure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Dragons aren't the only joint venture club to struggle in recent years, with the Wests Tigers also falling on hard times.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rugby league great Andrew Johns said both clubs needed strong figures to take charge saying, "there needs to be a broom through the whole place" when referencing the Dragons.<\/p>\n

"If you've got a strong coach that's the thing, there was probably politics that were going on there (Tigers in 2005) but when you're winning you don't hear from them," he said.<\/p>\n

"The key is you've got to win.<\/p>\n

"Wayne made the big decision (when starting at the Dragons), he said, 'Righto we're training at Wollongong' because before Wayne they used to train between Kogarah and Wollongong.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

"That's what you need, someone to make those strong decisions."<\/p>\n

Fittler added the problems around the club's board – that's split \ufeffbetween members from St George Leagues Club, WIN Corporation and the Illawarra Steelers – played a part when former coach Paul 'Mary' McGregor was sacked.<\/p>\n

"I remember talking to Mary when he \ufefflost his job, he got to a top four position and 15 months later he couldn't pick his own team," he said. It's laughable.<\/p>\n

"To think that a board can come in and think that they should be part of picking a team, it's hilarious."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Fittler has revealed the man he believes could rescue the Dragons from its current predicament as the club searches for a new coach. In […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":297915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297913"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297918,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297913\/revisions\/297918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/297915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}