The St. George Illawarra Dragons entered the Anzac Day round already mired in crisis, and their latest outing only amplified the club’s struggles, delivering a 62-point thrashing at the hands of the Sydney Roosters that has left interim head coach Dean Young calling for widespread systemic changes. Still, Young found one silver lining amid the chaos: rookie halfback Kade Reed’s encouraging debut performance has earned him a guaranteed starting spot in the team’s next clash against the Newcastle Knights following the upcoming bye.
The defeat capped a chaotic 7-day stretch for the Red V. The week began with the club parting ways with incumbent head coach Shane Flanagan, and ended just hours after the club announced the high-profile signing of fullback Scott Drinkwater, who will join the squad for the 2025 season. For Young, a club legend who stepped into the interim role, long-term roster moves for future seasons are not a priority right now. His sole focus is ending the Dragons’ historic winless drought to open the 2024 NRL campaign.
The full-scale breakdown on Saturday left no doubt about how deep the Dragons’ issues run: two players were sin-binned, the defensive unit missed 36 tackles, and the team committed 13 unforced errors throughout the contest. “The first thing I did after the game was check in on the players, and every one of them is embarrassed by the performance we put out there,” Young told reporters post-match. “We started decently, going up 6-nil early, but when that lead was overturned, we completely folded under pressure. This was a tough week for the whole club, but we expected a far better response than this.”
Against that backdrop of poor play, Reed’s performance stood out as the only bright spot for the Dragons. Making his first NRL start in front of a packed crowd at Allianz Stadium, the young playmaker showed no hesitation in attacking, testing the Roosters’ defensive line with creative passes and tactical kicking. He looked to have set up the opening try of the game with a long-range pass to Mat Feagai, only for an earlier error from a teammate to disallow the score. Later in the match, a late try he scored was also overturned for obstruction, but he consistently took on responsibility in both attack and defence, even as opponents targeted him as an obvious weak point.
“I’m really proud of how he stepped up,” Young said, confirming his decision to retain Reed in the starting lineup. “It’s an enormous ask for a rookie to make his debut on Anzac Day, when we’re already 0-7 and carrying all that pressure. He still has a lot of development ahead of him, but there were enough positive signs to give him another start. Kade will be our starting halfback against the Knights.”
Captain Clint Gutherson is expected to return from injury for the Knights clash, though Young has not yet confirmed what other changes he will make to the lineup. What the interim coach does know is that widespread changes to the club’s training and game operations are non-negotiable, given the 0-8 start to the season. “We have to change the way we run our programs, because what we’re doing right now is obviously not working, as everyone saw on Saturday,” he explained. “I can’t predict how quickly things will turn around. All I can do is focus on getting better one day at a time. We’ll do a full review on Wednesday, make sure we learn every possible lesson from this loss, and move forward from there.”
Young has experience turning around a season on the brink: back in 2021, he was an assistant coach with the North Queensland Cowboys when the club dropped 10 consecutive matches to open the year. The side responded by signing experienced veterans Chad Townsend and Peta Hiku, and climbed into the top four of the ladder the following season. But turning around the Dragons’ current slump will first require rebuilding a playing group that has clearly lost confidence after eight straight losses.
“Of course confidence is low right now — any group would be in this position, so I knew this wouldn’t be an easy fix,” Young said. “But I still expected a better fight than what we gave on Saturday. Right now, we’re not just playing against the opposition — we’re beating ourselves.”