"It's never the same all the time when you bring young people in, but the one thing you've got to do is play them. You've got to put them on the field and you've got to live with them."
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That's what Anthony Griffin told this reporter when asked about the Dragons emerging crop of stars ahead of the 2022 season. They were words consistent with the reputation he'd previously built as a 'development coach'.
As it turns out, that's all they were. The recruitment calls, team selections, and the stunning trigger-happiness with young players that ultimately brought about his swift undoing, were a direct contradiction to that stated ethos.
While the club board has been frustratingly willing to put up with losses like the one suffered at the hands of the Cowboys last weekend, the abrupt benching of Jayden Sullivan meant the board had to act.
Like the wanton turfing of Tyrell Sloan and Talatau Amone in the seasons before, it ran directly counter to comments he'd made about maintaining faith in youth.
It was something he was still preaching in the lead-up to his side's Magic Round clash with the Tigers.
"This week you're going to have Sullivan, Amone and Sloan playing behind Ben Hunt," Griffin said.
"You have the two Feagai boys (Mat and Max) playing together, you have Blake Lawrie who is becoming one of the best props in the league.
"There is an evolution or development happening with our club, and it is going to be a real strong club. Any change that we make is in the best interest of the team for the long term."
And yet, just a week after making a much-needed change to inject Sullivan into the action, there he was riding the pine against the Cowboys.
Why? For an incident that NRL head of football Graham Annesley confirmed on Monday should not have seen Sullivan binned at all.
Beyond that, with the Dragons chasing points, a bloke who'd grabbed two slick solo tries just a week earlier would have been pretty handy.
Griffin's offered rationale - that Moses Mbye was needed to shore up the defence in the middle, and that Hunt had done "a lot of tackling" and needed to get back out on the edge - was utter rubbish, plain and simple.
Hunt's produced 80-minute performances at hooker at Origin level, but a 20-minute stretch had gassed him?
Sullivan had put aside his issues with the coach over the off-season, had done a mountain of work to get on top of hamstring issues and, after again being left out of the NRL side, he'd been outstanding in NSW Cup to earn a recall, He was his side's best on ground when he got it.
Griffin benching him less than a full 80 minutes late was seemingly a reflex action, a single act that summed up his entire tenure.
Up to that point, the board was willing to let the scenario play out as they went about finding the next coach. What did it have to lose by letting Griffin continue?
That changed with the Sullivan call. To let Griffin continue risked shattering the confidence of the youngsters that were always going to be at the club long after his departure.
Zac Lomax, on the Origin fringe a matter of seasons ago, is already running around a shell of himself in the NSW Cup without a hint as to why he's there.
With a contract running until the end of 2026, Lomax was also going to outlast Griffin's stay. It'll now be the job of the next coach to rebuild him as a player.
Jacob Liddle was there playing alongside him on Sunday mere weeks after signing a contract extension. Moses Mbye, unsigned beyond this year, has persistently been Griffin's preferred option.
Likewise, Griffin's support for the likes of Aaron Woods, Josh McGuire and Corey Norman was unwavering. Andrew McCullough played 20 games last year despite being off the pace enough to call time on his career with a year left to run on the three-year contract the club signed him to at 31 years of age.
All the while, the likes of Sloan, Amone, Sullivan, Lomax and Liddle have been readily dispensable. It's a pattern of calls that meant leaving Griffin in charge any longer could actually do damage on the way out - albeit without malicious intent.
It's not sabotage as some frustrated fans have suggested. This column's not about kicking a guy while he's down either. It's merely an acknowledgement that Griffin's way of operating is well out of date.
The support of his players has been genuine, but it's come in the absence of any apparent belief that his methods can turn things.
There's a lesson there for any club who buys at the 'development coach' shelf. A lot of coaches with vast experience, but without any great success, are often pitched as development coaches.
It becomes the sell. When the two clubs you've previously coached are Brisbane and Penrith - the two biggest junior leagues in the world - it's an easy one for Griffin.
The Dragons board didn't so much buy it, as try and sell it. Without alternatives when it sacked Paul McGregor, and with preferred target Craig Fitzgibbon off the table, the board pitched it that way to fans.
The reality is there's hardly been a single move made toward actual development. Other than Hunt, you'd be hard-pressed to find a player who's gotten better as a result of their time under Griffin.
For all the criticism he copped, Paul McGregor's time saw the likes of Tyson Frizell and Paul Vaughan become Test and Origin regulars. Jack de Belin developed into an Origin player, while Lomax was on the fringe of being one.
Cam McInnes - moved on when Griffin took charge - went from being a bench hooker at Souths to Dragons captain and two-time player of the year at a club he never wanted to leave.
The club is now at a point where it genuinely needs a development coach, on and off the field. Jason Ryles and Ben Hornby are the favourites to undertake a reconstruction.
At present that's what the task is. Had the club left Griffin in place, the next candidate was facing an Allianz Stadium-like knock-down and rebuild. It was the right call.
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
