Ryles regime to start at Dragons as soon as next week

Dollar-odds future Dragons coach Jason Ryles is expected to take up a position with St George Illawarra as soon as next week after being told by the Sydney Roosters they want him out the door as quickly as possible.

Bookies have Ryles as all but a $1.01 favourite to take the Red V top job.

All that is meant to kick off at the end of the season with interim boss Ryan Carr guiding the Dragons through the rest of the 2023 NRL season and Ryles—himself a 156-game Dragon—seeing out his role with Sydney as the club’s defensive coach. Only, Roosters chairman Nick Politis has apparently pulled the plug on the whole thing early.

Talks out of Bondi suggest Ryles has already been shown the door, with the Roosters hierarchy peeved at the idea the 44-year-old won’t be fulfilling the 2024 part of his original contract. As far as The Sporting Base understands, Trent Robinson is not among those annoyed parties.

But, Politis gets want Politis wants and right now he wants Ryles to walk away from the club as soon as possible—a move that will see him step into Dragons colours a lot sooner than expected.

What that means for the Dragons is the club will be able to bring Ryles into the fold nearly five months earlier than they have originally been planning, though he won’t assume head coaching responsibilities until the 2024 preseason begins.

Caretaker Ryan Carr will continue his coaching duties for the rest of the year.

The idea there is that Carr has already been working with the 2023 group and can maintain similar structures while working alongside Ryles in the early days. Meanwhile, the incoming boss can work on signing the assistants and staff he wants as well as take a long hard look at the St George Illawarra playing list.

On the Roosters side, Fox Sports is reporting Matt King and Brett Morris will become Robinson’s assistants for the rest of the season and into 2024 and beyond. There are also talks about retired stars Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend moving into coaching roles beneath Robinson, King, and Morris to assist in training and development.

The hope from Politis and Sydney is none of those four will want to leave.

This season the Roosters and Dragons have traded one close win each. Sydney sits in 11th ahead of the State of Origin period with five wins while St George Illawarra are dead last with three.

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