Dean Young’s first thought upon being made the Dragons’ interim head coach was for his loved ones. His second was for the club’s talented rookie halfback.
“I went home to tell my wife to buckle up,” the 42-year-old said.
“I apologised to my three kids about what’s going to happen next, and then I got into the car and drove over to Kade Reed’s house and told him that he’s about to make his debut.”
This is not Young’s first time in charge of the club where he played his entire career. He had six games as caretaker coach in 2020 after Paul McGregor was sacked, winning two of them.
But he has assumed control again with the joint-venture operation at their lowest ebb after seven consecutive defeats to start the season and 11 losses in a row all up.
As a player Young experienced the best of times at St George Illawarra, revelling in the glory of their drought-breaking 2010 premiership. As a coach at the Dragons, he’s seen the worst of them.
“No one knows the club like me. I was a ball boy when I was five years old at the club,” said Young, whose father Craig is a Dragons legend and grand final-winning captain.
“I’ve been here for 10 years as a player. I’ve been here multiple times, as an assistant coach.
“I’ve got strong views on where the club’s at, where it needs to go, and how it needs to get to where it needs to go, but those conversations are pointless at this time.”
The immediate task, according to Young, is to restore the confidence of the Dragons to the level it appeared to be at in their first outing of the season in Las Vegas, when they pushed Canterbury to the limit, before losing in golden-point extra-time.
From there, the wheels fell off, ending the tenure of Shane Flanagan.
A day after Flanagan’s departure was confirmed, the Dragons board met for four hours at the Bruce Gordon Centre, the club’s new headquarters named after their billionaire half-owner.
Board members emerged without comment but CEO Tim Watsford said he was determined to restore pride at the famous club and declared local juniors wouldn’t be lost to the Dragons under his watch.
“I hate losing … getting booed by the crowd [at] Kogarah is heartbreaking,” Watsford said.
“That’s not what our fans deserve. We’re here to take accountability for that and move forward. It’s eyes forward – we’ve got a bloke in here that can do the job and he’s going to do it well and we’re really confident of what the future holds.”
Young has already put his stamp on the side selection wise, relegating Flanagan’s son Kyle to the bench to give 20-year-old Reed his opportunity against the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day.
But wary of placing too much pressure on the newcomer, he made clear the emerging playmaker was not the panacea to the Dragons’ problems.
“We need change … where we’re going isn’t getting us to where we want to go,” Young said.
“We’re getting the same results each week, we’re leading games and then not getting it done and we need a bit of a circuit breaker. I know Kade will do a good job, but Kade Reed is not the saviour of this club.”
Young will effectively be auditioning for the permanent Dragons head coaching role for the rest of the season.
He’s got an almighty assignment ahead of him but having waited in the wings as an assistant coach with the North Queensland Cowboys and the NSW State of Origin team as well as at the Dragons, he was not about to shy away from it.
“Why am I taking on this challenge?” he said. “Well, there are a couple of reasons. I’m doing it for the players. I’ve known a lot of these players for a long period of time and they need support and I feel like I’m the best person to give them that support.
“The other part of it is obviously showing my three kids that in life there is going to be big challenges they’ve got to face … they’re going to see their dad walk towards a challenge and hopefully they’ll walk towards the challenges they have.”
Chris Barrett is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.