The axe that was teetering so precariously over Anthony Griffin's coaching tenure has fallen with St George Illawarra announcing on Tuesday they would sack the embattled coach after two and a half struggling seasons with the Red V.
Results speak for themselves and the Dragons are currently second-last on the ladder and on the back of a six-match losing streak.
Throw in the struggles of previous years, the speculation surrounding the club's pursuit of high-profile assistant coaches like Jason Ryles and Ben Hornby and it was a matter of when Griffin was let go, not if.
Assistant coach Ryan Carr will take over for the rest of the season but Ryles is in the box seat to lead the club into the future. If it does happen, that's an appointment the Dragons and their fans should feel very good about.
Ryles is one of the most promising assistants in the league, with acclaimed stints at the Roosters and Melbourne, and would be a good choice for any club who needed to find their forever coach. Throw in his Dragons pedigree and it's easy to see a future where Ryles coaches the club for many years to come.
It was always difficult to see that future with Griffin, which made him something of a curious appointment when he took the reins back in 2021.
The former Broncos and Panthers coach was counted as a safe pair of hands, a shepherd for the club's younger players and a bridge between a rebuild and a brighter future.
There were sound principles behind that appointment, in theory, especially if Griffin was specifically chosen to be a bridge to a brighter future.
At both Brisbane and Penrith, Griffin helped bring a score of younger talents into first grade and while he never took either club to a grand final, Griffin teams never bottomed out and propped up the rest of the ladder either. You get a rebuild without a wooden spoon in sight.
On paper, that's kind of what's happened. The Dragons finished 12th and tenth in his two full seasons in charge – they weren't especially bad but they weren't especially good either, they just sort of existed.
Local juniors like Jayden Sullivan, Talatau Amone, Tyrell Sloan and the Feagai twins have all cracked first grade under Griffin and, occasionally, showed glimpses of true brilliance.
The Dragons are struggling but there is talent on that roster, talent that just needs to be harnessed and directed and refined. But the fact they need that refinement shows the broader struggles of Griffin's tenure.
Before Saturday's listless defeat to the Cowboys their last five losses had come by two, two, one, six and two points. In each of those five matches they scored as many or more tries than their opponents but a lack of attention to detail let them down. At some point, that comes back to coaching.
Apart from Ben Hunt, who was already a Test and State of Origin player, and the hard-nosed Blake Lawrie it would be exceedingly generous to say many of the club's players have significantly improved since Griffin took over.
The paths of two players — enigmatic centre Zac Lomax and utility Jack Bird – are worth highlighting. They are two of the club's most talented players and neither of them have been put in the best position to succeed.
As it stands, Lomax is languishing in reserve grade after two tough seasons where he's looked far from the force he's often promised to be. A move from right to left centre this year was a disaster and ended up with him in reserve grade.
His goalkicking success rate has dropped from 78 per cent in 2020 to just over 60 per cent this year. He is not what he should be, not what he can be and there's probably a lot of reasons for that and only Lomax knows which ones are true. But coaching has to be a part of it.
Bird playing at all is a quiet success story given the horrific run of knee injuries he suffered during his time with Brisbane.
Throughout 2021 and 2022 he slowly found his way back and on occasions he looked a great deal like the player who starred with Cronulla years ago. But he's also played fullback, centre, five-eighth, halfback, second row and lock and he can do all these things but he's never been allowed to settle in and make one spot his own.
Such can be the lot of the utility life but Bird has always been capable of more than that and just because he can play a lot of positions doesn't mean he should.
Different positions require different attributes, different training, different body compositions but Bird has not been allowed to become the best version of himself as a player because he has not had that chance to hone himself into a master of one trade and not a jack of many.
This is mainly due to Griffin's penchant for shuffling the deck with his line up – he is not afraid of big changes, he makes them when he feels they are required, but they have been required many, many times and Bird has suffered for it.
Based on the club's recruitment in recent years Griffin clearly prefers older, more experienced players which, again in theory, would pair well with the club's youth brigade.
But none of the players Griffin chose – Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough, Gerard Beale, Moses Mbye, George Burgess and Aaron Woods – had enough left in the tank to play anything close to their best football and more than one were flat out holding their place in first grade despite the club's struggles.
Of the players mentioned above only Mbye is still with the club, which was part of the point. Take a punt on the old players, if it doesn't work and they retire or leave you have the cap space to sign new ones.
But if the club is underperforming, which the Dragons have for longer than many might think (they've made the finals just twice in the past ten years), they're just another side cast adrift in the wilderness outside premiership contention, one option among many with few redeeming features beyond a blank chequebook.
Zooming in on the 2023 season, Griffin has shuffled the deck at the Dragons in an effort to spark the side into something resembling their best but each of his gambles has lost.
The Suli-Lomax decision has been detrimental to both players, hooker Jacob Liddle was a bright spot once he arrived from the Tigers but was inexplicably dropped a few weeks ago and swapping Hunt to hooker during matches over the last few weeks was like shifting deckchairs around on the Titanic.
The move with Hunt was Griffin's last, desperate throw of the dice. The 33-year old is Griffin's most loyal soldier, with a history that stretches back over 15 years, and at times over the last 18 months he's been the only thing standing between the club and total oblivion.
Last month Hunt was forthright in his belief the club should keep Griffin and indicated he had little interest in starting all over again with another rebuild given his age.
Despite re-signing last year, it's hard to escape the feeling his future is now up and the air and the vultures will be circling in an effort to pick him off.
But even if losing Griffin costs them Hunt, this is a decision that had to be made. Things were not and could not get better under Griffin. When it goes that way, at some point, the choice isn't a choice at all.
