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'Laughable': Moses Mbye shrugs off talk of unrest at Dragons

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

St George Illawarra utility Moses Mbye has laughed off suggestions of player unrest at the Dragons and says uncertainty about Anthony Griffin’s coaching future is only natural given the side’s poor recent form.

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The Dragons entered the State of Origin period a genuine chance of playing finals football but finished it with decisive losses to fellow finals aspirants Brisbane and the Sydney Roosters.

The club’s board met on Tuesday and Griffin’s future was on the agenda, but Mbye said extra scrutiny was to be expected in the lead-up to the finals.

“It’s that time of the year where if you’re not performing very well, you’re going to be under the pump,” he said.

“The last couple of weeks we haven’t been playing good footy.

“The pressure comes back on us as a playing group and as a club. Obviously, there are headlines that you don’t really want to be reading. But that’s just the reality of what it is.”

Griffin is known as something of a hard taskmaster but Mbye dismissed reports the playing group was unhappy with his coaching style.

“It’s a bit laughable to be honest,” he said.

Mbye said the only way to ease pressure on the coach would be to improve on-field, starting with Friday’s match against Manly.

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If the Dragons lose they will be two wins and points differential out of the top eight with only six games in hand to close the gap.

“It doesn’t really matter what I say,” he said.

“I’m not going to stand here and throw fuel on the fire or tell everyone why (Griffin) is so good or why he’s bad.

“We’re going to be judged on how we turn up on Friday night.”

Mbye was at a loss to explain the Dragons’ recent form.

“I’m not quite sure what’s been missing,” he said.

“It’s something that we’ve been looking at during the week.

“There are a lot of variables in rugby league: teams change, fatigue, injuries.

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“You just need to prepare as best you can and for us that starts now.”

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J
JW 47 minutes ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.


What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.


Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.


There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..

Whilst these All Blacks aren’t blowing teams off the park like during the 2010s, they are nuggety and resourceful and don’t wilt. They are prepared to win the hard way, accumulating points by any means necessary.

and..

The other top sides in the world struggled to put them away. France and South Africa both could have well been defeated on home soil.

I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍

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