St George Illawarra have sacked head coach Anthony Griffin.
Griffin was told by Dragons officials on Tuesday morning he would be removed immediately, with Ryan Carr to take over in the interim.
Jason Ryles remains the club’s primary target to take over as coach next year, with fellow former Dragon Ben Hornby another option.
Griffin’s exit comes after they slumped to a six-game losing streak, with Saturday night’s 42-22 loss to North Queensland the final nail in the coffin.
“These decisions are never taken lightly and on behalf of the club I want to thank Anthony for all his hard work during his time at the Dragons,” CEO Ryan Webb said.
“Unfortunately our performances over the first 10 games of this season have not met the club’s expectations so it was decided he should finish up his duties this week.”
Griffin had arrived for work at the Dragons headquarters at Wollongong early on Tuesday morning, but drove out of the car park well before training was set to start.
The Dragons board was set to meet at 10am in Wollongong, but pulled the pin on Griffin before the meeting was due to start.
Griffin has endured a turbulent two-and-a-half years at the helm.
The club won 22 of 57 games under him and failed to make the finals in any season, while several players complained of communication issues with the coach.
Charged with developing the club’s juniors on his arrival, Griffin regularly brought them in and out of first grade and had Tyrell Sloan and Jayden Sullivan request releases at the end of last year.
Both eventually stayed, but it was Griffin’s decision to bench halfback Sullivan for the majority of Saturday’s loss to the Cowboys that in particular raised eyebrows.
Dragons players fronted the media at 8:30 on Tuesday morning, and at that stage had not been told of Griffin’s fate.
But they said they felt for him, and admitted they wore the brunt of responsibility for his exit.
“This is someone’s livelihood. It’s their job, their livelihood,” Dragons forward Jack de Belin said.
“It is sad to see. It’s very sad, when anyone loses their job regardless of what field or expertise they’re in. I have a lot of sympathy in that sense.
“A lot of that is on us players. I have a lot of guilt in the sense that I could have done more and probably helped out. It is pretty sad.”
