Trent Robinson is resigned to the fact he’s bound to lose Michael Cheika sooner rather than later after the former Wallabies coach was singled out as the perfect candidate to rescue St George Illawarra.
Ahead of the Sydney Roosters’ traditional Anzac Day game with the Dragons, Fox Sports pundit Matthew Johns suggested this week that the straight-talking Cheika would be the right coach to revive the Red V, who haven’t made finals since 2018.
Interim coach Dean Young, who will take charge of his first Dragons game on Saturday, appears to be in the box seat for a permanent role after the club parted ways with Shane Flanagan at the start of the week.
Despite his strong pedigree in the 15-man game, Cheika is building an impressive resume in league.
He took Lebanon to the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup and is expected to reprise that role later this year while working as an assistant under Robinson.
“He’s a head coach – that’s pretty clear,” Robinson said.
“He always has been and so whenever that comes up, he’ll be a head coach in the future somewhere pretty quickly and he’ll be ready to go.
“Cheik works with the forwards a lot and has worked really with building that mindset along with the skillset, he’s learning around the nuances of the game.
“But the mindset he’s had for a long time so he’s been a good value add.”
Young has already started making changes for the future by moving on assistant coach Michael Ennis.
He also dumped Flanagan’s son Kyle to the bench and blooding flyweight halfback Kade Reed for his NRL debut.
There has been lots of commentary about Reed’s size and while Robinson refused to publicly put a target on the playmaker’s back, he was clear there would be nowhere for the 20-year-old to hide.
“We’ve watched him play a lot of footy – he just hasn’t played NRL yet,” Robinson said.
“He’s played the trial, but he’s played a lot of reserve grade and has come through the grades, so as long as you do your work you know the player.
“They used to play in the second (defensive) line, and they used to slot in on the far side of where the defensive lines were or where the ball was and move around.
