Ryan Carr is keeping his focus squarely on his role as St George Illawarra’s interim coach while incoming boss Shane Flanagan begins to configure his staff for 2024 by luring Dean Young back to the club.
Currently an assistant coach to Todd Payten at North Queensland, Young had been one of three finalists to replace Anthony Griffin as the Dragons’ next full-time coach before Flanagan beat him and Ben Hornby to the job last month.
Despite losing out, Young is poised to leave the Cowboys.
The Dragons are still finalising the terms of Young’s second stint as an assistant at the club where he won the 2010 premiership and played 209 first-grade games.
Previously head coach of second-tier English outfit Featherstone, Carr joined the Dragons as attacking coach this season before being promoted to interim coach when Griffin was fired in May.
Head-coaching changes often have a domino effect; Young and Flanagan both left their roles as assistants at the Dragons once Griffin was appointed as Paul McGregor’s successor for the 2021 season.
But Carr said he had not given thought to his future beyond the 2023 campaign.
“I’ve spoken with Flanno about different things but it’s my job right now to lead this team,” he said.
“If I take one eye off that, then I’m not doing the right thing by the team.
“Without being disrespectful, I don’t want to focus too much on next year.
“My job is to work hard for this team right now and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
After hefty back-to-back losses, the Dragons showed considerable improvement against Canberra on Friday night, with Junior Amone masterminding a comeback from 30-10 down.
A fairytale victory was not to be, though, as Seb Kris stole a last-minute try that confirmed the Raiders’ 36-26 win.
But Carr said the improved effort had reinforced his passion for coaching the Dragons.
“You could see tonight, there would have been multiple reasons and excuses for them to roll over and give up but they’re working really hard, they’re training really hard,” he said.
“They care, they’re buying in, which you can tell.
“The result tonight wasn’t through a lack of buy-in or disrespect to the team or the jersey, it was just execution stuff, and that’s probably where we’ve let ourselves down the last three weeks in a row.
“We’ve just got to keep working hard at that execution.”