After the semi-implosion of LIV, I don’t want to say “I told you so,” two weeks in a row – much – but I can’t help it. The Dragons, I said. They’ve completely lost their moral compass, I said. No good will come of it, I said. They’ll keep losing, I said.
My theme, dating back several years, dates the demise of the Dragons to something that went a lot deeper than just coach Shane Flanagan – who was sacked this week, after 11 successive losses, dating back to last season. For there was something rotten at the core of the Dragons, going back yonks, that no coach could fix in the short term.
“This,” I wrote back in 2021, “was the club that pursued Israel Folau long after he was a byword for whacko nutterdom and extreme homophobia; who gave Jack de Belin a $200K pay-rise on a new four-year contract while he was dealing with seriously grave rape charges. Also the club that had been so untroubled by serious allegations of sexual assault made against Jarryd Hayne from his time in America, that they went after him and that contract was only derailed when – by Hayne’s account – on the day he was to sign he was charged with the rape in Newcastle.”
And yes, I know that after three trials de Belin was not convicted, while Hayne was released on appeal over the Newcastle incident and never charged over the American allegations, and a civil suit against him over the alleged US incident was settled before trial. The point remains, as I wrote back then:
“Give me a club any day which picks on good character, which wants players who wear their jersey to be bywords for decency and good bloke-edness the way St George used to have with the likes of Mark Coyne and Brad Mackay and before that players like Craig Young, Reg Gasnier and Kevin Ryan. Right now, the Dragons seem to pick on nothing more than raw playing ability, with no reference to character, and it is a bad mistake.”
In recent times, true, the Dragons have got great men of huge character on board like Clint Gutherson, but that club has still been lost for the better part of a decade, and they completely lack old-stagers raised with the Red-V. Watching them, I have no sense of players ready to bleed for the jersey, the way Penrith players clearly do, the way Souths clearly do, and the way even Manly players do on a good day. They look like a club without a soul.
Dean Young, however, is a good choice to rebuild the whole thing. They are a club with a great heritage. They just need to find it again and pick players of character who will wear the club’s famous colours with pride.
From SMH racing department to the Pulitzer Prize
Global literary fame, emerging from the Herald Sports Department? No contest. For we have no less than a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist in our ranks! As if you didn’t know, her name is Geraldine Brooks, and I interviewed her this week for my weekly Sun-Herald Q&A. Alas, when I put it to her that she must have laid the foundation stone for her great skill by being a junior racing scribe for the SMH in the late ’70s, she demurred.
GB: [Laughing.] That’s overstating it. I was merely a humble clerk to the actual writers.
Fitz: Of course! Rrrrracing now at Randwick! Did you actually get to report on who won the fifth race on a heavy track?
GB: I didn’t get to write anything. I would have loved to have written Damon Runyon-esque character profiles of people at the track and whatnot, but it wasn’t to be. All I did was take down details for the actual racing writers. I had to note down the position of every horse at every turn, the odds they started at, what they went out to, and then the results, of course. Every race in Sydney, including the trots and the dogs.
Fitz: Being a racing writer is, of course, a fine thing. Some of my best friends … etc. But did you have some sense while doing it, of “I’m destined for bigger things”?
GB: I have to tell you, I could not get out of that assignment fast enough. It was the longest four months of my life.
Charrrrrrming!
I don’t care. She remains one of ours, made good in the big city, and I choose to believe there is a direct link between the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for her novel March, and hanging around with the SMH’s great men of racing, Max Presnell, “Whispering Bill” Whittaker, Ray Connolly and Bert Lillye.
Queen’s father a Tasmanian rugby icon
And speaking of odd connections, another one emerged this week between the Queen of Denmark and rugby’s own Gordon Bray. For on the death of Queen Mary’s father down in Tassie, Professor John Donaldson, Gordie posted on his “LinkedIn” account – whatever that is – that the Prof will always hold a cherished place in Australian rugby history for the fact that back in 1972, he led Tasmania not just against the touring New Zealand All Blacks side, but also the 1972 Five Nations heavyweights Les Bleus from France.
And who should be perched high in the ABC TV scaffold at Bellerive Oval, calling his first-ever international rugby match? Gordon Bray!
“Astonishingly, Tasmania scored first against L’Equipe de France,” Bray wrote. “Winger Hawkes intercepted on his line and scored a length-of-the-field try. Co-commentator and President of the Tasmanian RU George Debnam was so elated he accidentally spat out his false teeth. Disconcertingly, they cascaded into the long grass beneath the scaffold, immediately arousing the interest of a stray dog.
“Although the impact of Tassie’s early bonus was short-lived, the final score was no blowout as fly-half Donaldson stoically guided his troops towards a respectable finish. Whilst attending the game, it is understood that the future Queen of Denmark slept through the entire encounter. She was just four months old.”
In later years, Gordie came to know the Professor well.
“John Donaldson was a canny rugby player and on-field organiser,” Bray wrote. “Always jovial and supportive, he stood out at any level. As the late great Scottish commentator Bill McLaren might have said, ‘If you catch the professor of mathematics, you get to make a wish.’ Always in our thoughts. A Tasmanian rugby icon. RIP.”
What they said
Gout Gout on the haters: “There are always going to be haters, if you’ve got haters it means you’re doing something right.” From my distance, I see little hate, and mostly overwhelming affection for him, at least in the public domain?
Usain Bolt on Gout Gout: “Hopefully, he has the right set of people to guide him and keep him focused on track and field because the rest of the stuff will always be there.”
Moana Pasifika coach Tana Umaga on the team being axed by Super Rugby: “What 1777058656 for Samoa and Tonga? Rugby league’s got a great product at the moment, and it’s very popular. They’ve got a lot of money that’s being put into it, and they’re all over the islands promoting it. The Pacific Islanders make up nearly 40 per cent of all players in the NRL, similar to rugby.”
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr after the team didn’t reach the playoffs: “I still love coaching, but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. There is a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas.”
Kerr: “I’m the luckiest guy in the NBA’s history. I’ve played with Jordan, Pippen, Duncan, David Robinson, for Phil Jackson, Pop, Lenny Wilkens, and Lute Olson. And then to come here and inherit this team and coach Steph Curry, who is undoubtedly the greatest face of a franchise that I’ve seen in any sport.”
Brett Kenny on the Eels’ 1986 title: “It seems like yesterday, and then to find out that it’s actually been 40 years, geez it’s a long time.”
Peter Sterling on it being bittersweet: “It’s all sweet, obviously, but a little bit of bitter that this is a celebration of not just a grand final win, but also our last grand final win.”
Jelena Dokic on what she’s learned: “I wanted to show parents, to show coaches, and to show the world in general, there was this narrative for a very long time that if you’re really, really tough on your kid, and actually if you abuse them, then that creates champions. But it is such a wrong narrative.”
Richmond coach Adem Yze on their winless start to the season: “We’re just getting tested from someone upstairs at the moment as a footy club and a playing group, so we’ve just got to bandy together and galvanise as a group.” Huh? Has Richmond moved to south Alabama?
Italian sports minister Andrea Abodi shut down the absurd Trumpian notion – but I repeat myself – that Italy, which did not qualify for the World Cup, might take the spot of Iran, which did: “Italy’s possible re-qualification for the 2026 World Cup … is firstly, not possible and secondly, not appropriate. I don’t know what comes first. Qualification is on the pitch.”
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan after his departure: “I care deeply about this club and the playing group, and after discussions with the club, we agreed this was the right time for a change.”
Dragons chairman Andrew Lancaster on the media coverage of the team: “Our coverage of this great game, of this great club, should be better. Readers, viewers and listeners deserve better.” Quite what the media got wrong completely escapes me.
Dragons player Jaydn Su’A, who’s already signed with the Eels for next season, on if he’ll leave early: “I’m a Dragon until I’m not a Dragon.”
NRL Warriors coach Andrew Webster after they defeated the Titans: “One of our favourite sayings is, ‘We’d rather win and learn than lose and learn,’ so we get to do that tonight.”
Charles Barkley on him and Michael Jordan breaking bread after a bit of a feud: “We’re not like Prince William and Prince Harry. We always have a lot of love for each other. But we talked in the last 72 hours. We just decided to get together and play golf as soon as basketball is over.”
Team of the week
Tiger Hunter. If there’s a better name in Australian sport right now than the hooker for NSW CIS Primary Schools rep league team, hailing from Northern Beaches Christian School, I haven’t seen it.
Api Koroisau. For my money, the Tigers dynamo is the Geoff Toovey of his generation as in – “weight for age, pound for pound, output per kilo, divided by games, up the Windsor Road from Baulkham Hills and how’s your mother?” – the best player going around.
Alison Sharpe. Won the 2026 Australian Women’s Association Croquet Championship. (And she’s my neighbour. So there. She was also part of the NSW team that beat Victoria to secure the Eire Cup.)
Hannah Green. The Australian golfer just won her fourth tournament from her past five starts.
Newcastle Jets. Won the A-League Men’s premiership for the first time.
Fijian Drua. Earned their first win on the road in three years.
Zac Lomax. Made his first start in Super Rugby, scoring a good try in the corner for the Western Force against the Crusaders. Generally, played fine, done strong.
Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X.
