NRL: Dragons coach Anthony Griffin’s axing is just too painful to watch

Anthony Griffin. Photo / Photosport

OPINION:

The drawn-out sacking of Anthony Griffin continues like the pummelling of a punch-drunk middleweight in 4K slow-motion.

The embattled coach’s job security now fluctuates with every knock-on, every stoppage and every board meeting, with the situation now becoming so protracted its almost Tantric.

Much like that meditative form of pleasure where the end goal is not completion but the journey, Griffin’s final months at the Dragons look destined to be filled with emotion and uncomfortable positions (11th to 15th) before ending with shame and no eye contact.

The weekend’s loss to the Gold Coast was the latest whistlestop on his indeterminate farewell tour, with his side resuming business as usual after an encouraging win against the Dolphins by missing 48 tackles against a Titans attack that would barely blow the froth off a lime spider.

Amid news of an impending board meeting next Tuesday and the knowledge he needs to reapply for his job next year, Griffin’s Mondays are now like a casual checking the roster at a salmonella-infested Subway.

This slow-cooked uncoupling began in March when the Dragons announced his role was up for grabs when his deal expires in 2024, thus issuing the 56-year-old a notice period that could end anytime between tomorrow and next Autumn.

The playing group has exhibited scant signs of life since, leaving the former Broncos coach 5000/1 to be retained- and drifting.

Nevertheless, it’s hardly surprising the relationship is ending this way - especially to embittered Dragons fans.

Whether soothsaying or just negatively conditioned from failure, Griffin’s signing was never fully embraced by the diehards, and still isn’t.

While not as maligned as the Corey Norman deal, many of the faithful believed it was always destined to end in a blizzard of tears and average first-graders playing years past their used-by dates.

Not only did the coach lack the gravitas of the ‘big name’ their club deserved as one of the game’s loftiest brands, his two-year deal felt tentative and reeked of a premature payout.

When Griffin was only able to lift the Dragons from 12th to 11th in his first season, fans feared the worst.

As for the club itself, it acknowledged their concerns and extended his deal.

Griffin’s tenure has been compounded by various controversies including the Paul Vaughan Covid barbecue and the criminal cases of Jack de Belin and Tautau Amone, and more recently, the revelation from Moses Suli that he didn’t want to be there, all of which Dragons fans deal with by blaming Ben Hunt.

But most sadly, it’s the average nature of the Dragons existence that pains fans the most.

2023 looks set to be another campaign of quiet mediocrity, a disaster that isn’t serious enough to warrant the kind of scrutiny that occurs when a club prints American soldiers on its ANZAC jersey.

If anything, Dragons fans probably welcome a break-up, that makes the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard split look like a microwaved dinner, if only to feel something.