Dragons had to move now on Griffin's future, says Phil Gould

St George Illawarra's decision to make coach Anthony Griffin reapply for his job is the right move, according to Phil Gould. Griffin is in the third and final year of his contract, having won 21 of 50 matches since taking over at the Dragons. The club finished 11th in 2021 and 10th in 2022, on both occasions four points out of the finals. Gould pointed out that the timeline meant the club had to act now, or risk the situation blowing up later in the season. "You've got to look at it from the Dragons perspective, he's off contract at the end of the year," he said. "The time will come in the next couple of weeks where they go to every press conference and they'll be asking the question, are you re-signing for next year? "The club's going to get hounded with 'what are you doing about the coach'. They'll have players off-contract or players they're trying to sign and the first question they'll ask is who is going to be the coach? "They've got to be able to provide an answer for that." Gould, himself a two-time premiership-winning coach, said the Dragons may make a call as soon as the next few weeks. "They're not going to let it go on until the end of the year," he said.