Interim Dragons coach Dean Young has made the stunning decision to dismiss assistant coach Michael Ennis only 24 hours into his caretaker tenure, a move veteran rugby league journalists David Riccio and Brent Read have described as virtually unprecedented — and a strong signal that the Red V hierarchy views Young as the man for the long-term job.
Riccio broke the story on Triple M NRL Daily and described it as something he could not recall happening in recent memory. "Another major development down in Wollongong, and it is to do with the Red V," Riccio said. "It's something I can't recall happening, certainly in recent memory, where the assistant coach in Dean Young is appointed as the interim and caretaker coach at this point in time, has made the decision to clean out his staff."
According to Riccio, the trigger was tactical philosophy rather than personality. "My understanding is Michael was told that we're not going with a traditional attack-defence structure. Michael was the attacking side of the business as far as the football team is concerned, and Dean did the defence. Dean wants to flip it all around, change things up, and Mick is not required."
The bigger picture, Riccio suggested, is that Ennis had been publicly linked with the Dragons head-coaching job on a permanent basis — as has Young — and that having both men on the same staff had become functionally impossible.
"There's two blokes there who both coveted this job, both want this job, right? So, how can you work alongside each other? It seems like a really untenable situation to me. So I can understand why Dean's gone down this path," Riccio said.
Brent Read, who had spoken with Ennis on Monday night, said the sacking had come as a shock given the apparent willingness of the senior assistant to back Young into the role.
"I spoke to Mick last night," Read said. "As of last night, he was prepared to go — like, he was talking about an ambush against the Sydney Roosters. He was all in backing Dean to lead as interim, and he'd be the assistant. They had a constructive working relationship. It wasn't like they didn't get on. From everything Mick said, he was ready to go. But, you know, wake up this morning and he's told he's not required."
Host Charlie Rogers — alongside Read — questioned whether it was sensible to ambush a Roosters side when the assistant-coach situation had so clearly reduced the Dragons' remaining coaching firepower.
"They could lose by 100," Read warned. "No disrespect to Dean or anyone. The way they play the game, honestly, if they get within 40 — ."
The most significant implication of Young's power, Riccio argued, is that he is now being treated internally as something close to a lay-down favourite for the permanent job — a read reinforced by the fact that obvious external candidate Ben Hornby had not received a single phone call from the club.
"The most prominent other name connected to the Dragons, Ben Hornby, has had zero correspondence or communication from St George Illawarra," Riccio said. "Even if they were looking outside, you would think one phone call would be made to Hornby to say, 'Hey, are you any chance of coming now? Are you any chance of coming at the end of your contract with Souths? What's your lay of the land?' There's been none of that."
"For me, I think it is Dean Young. I think they want Dean Young, similar to Kieran Foran, to succeed in this role."
Read added a caveat: a board meeting was scheduled for the day the sacking was announced, and Hornby was not yet ruled out. "You would think that they'll speak to Ben at some point. I'd be surprised if they don't."
Riccio admitted the club's public handling of the week — sacking Shane Flanagan with no immediate interim announcement, then allowing Young to dismiss his senior assistant a day later — had raised obvious questions about whether the Dragons had entered the process with a plan at all.
"They're in this situation — where Dean Young's now making calls, major calls on staffing, when 24 hours earlier he didn't even have the job. I can't get my head around it," Riccio said. "Maybe I am getting ahead of myself and thinking that maybe St George can get their act together and actually have a plan, when in fact they're just flying by the seat of their pants."
For the Dragons, the short-term challenge is a Roosters side that will arrive in Wollongong with a coach-dismissal narrative in the air. The long-term story — if Riccio is right — is a club that has now effectively stripped back its coaching box around a single permanent candidate, weeks before any formal process is supposed to begin.
