😃 The good: Kieran Foran flying at Manly
😔 The bad: Dragons’ winless run continues
😡 The ugly: Tensions mount at struggling Bulldogs
Kieran Foran a shoo-in to land Manly coaching job
Shane Flanagan, John Cartwright and Brad Arthur have all been thrown up as assistant coach candidates once the “interim” is removed from Kieran Foran‘s coaching title and replaced by “fulltime”. Flanno, BA and Carty are all knowledgeable rugby league men with a wealth of NRL experience and would no doubt add solid input and support.
But they also come with ambition and a belief and desire to again have control of their own side. The bold move to replace Anthony Seibold with Foz has paid off big time, with Manly winning five of the six matches since he took charge.
It’s a given Foran will be handed the keys to the team fulltime within the next few weeks and then the search for an assistant begins. Having opted for youth over experience in appointing Foz, why not go all-in on the fresh face policy and put a graduate of their 2008/11 premiership sides alongside him in the coach’s box?
Matt Ballin no doubt has his eyes on a head coaching role after serving a solid apprenticeship with Brisbane and Queensland but would surely park that for now to be part of an exciting new era at Brookvale. He has the backing of Brisbane’s two-time premiership-winning coach Michael Maguire and successful Maroons boss Billy Slater.
And he has Manly DNA – seemingly a prerequisite for any successful Sea Eagles coach – coursing through his veins. A Foran-Ballin combo makes a lot of sense.
Kieran Foran (L) is expected to be named Manly’s new head coach in the coming weeks and former Sea Eagles teammate Matt Ballin (R) is a popular choice to be his assistant. Pic: Getty
Winless Dragons hoping to avoid unwanted 60-year first
St George -Illawarra are at unbackable odds to collect the joint-venture’s first wooden spoon after a disastrous 0-9 start to the season. Punting Shane Flanagan and installing Dean Young as interim coach has done little to stop the rot and there is little light at the end of the tunnel.
Will they win a game this year? They are so far off the pace it’s hard to mount a serious case against a winless season.
Just look at the Dragons’ draw over the next month or so. They face the Panthers, Warriors and Broncos over the next three rounds and you expect three more entries in the loss column.
Dean Young (L) has so far failed to turn around the fortunes at the winless Dragons since taking over as interim coach. Pic: Getty
Round 14 takes them to Shark Park for the local derby and you’d give them a rough hope, although they haven’t won at that ground since 2019. It’s then followed by road trips to Newcastle and Canberra… so do you see where we’re going with this?
It’s hard to work out where that breakthrough win will come. The Roosters of 1966 were the last first grade team to go through an entire season without a single victory. Sixty years on, they may have company come early September.
Teammate clash sums up tensions at Bulldogs
Can someone please come clean about what exactly is happening at Canterbury? As their season heads south, normally talkative boss Gus Gould has pretty much put himself on mute, shutting down his incessant social media chat and – for some unknown reason – either refusing or being allowed by Channel 9 not to discuss how bad things are at Belmore.
Coach Cameron Ciraldo gave his backs a bake after the loss to the Dolphins in a sign he’s fed up with his orders not being followed. Stephen Crichton’s ugly on-field slap down of Lachlan Galvin after the youngster’s defensive mis-read spoke of the tension and frustration in the camp.
Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton’s spray for Lachie Galvin (R) against the Dolphins hinted at bigger issues at the struggling club. Pic: Getty/Fox League
Meanwhile, the Bulldog Army is livid things seem to have returned to the bad old days and are blowing up deluxe over the club’s recruitment and retention. Immortal-in-waiting Cameron Smith knows a thing or two about a team’s body language and didn’t like what he saw as the Dogs surrendered to the Dolphins on Friday night.
As the Channel 9 vision showed Ciraldo talking to his shattered team in the dressing-room, Smith said: “That’s a team there that’s doing a little bit of soul searching. They started extremely well, they had high energy, they had plenty of intent in the way they wanted to approach this game.
“They were up 12 points to four after about 25 minutes and then they lost track of how they had to play this game. (Jacob) Preston went to the bin and the wheels just fell off and they just couldn’t recover.
“This is a team that’s really struggled when they face any type of adversity or a team that really wants to stand up to them in the tough periods of matches and go with them. They just can’t seem to recover from those types of moments.” Gus won’t be able to stay silent forever.