Bernard Guasch, rather discreet after the end of the 19th Super League season of his club Catalans Dragons, comes out of silence. A lucid analysis of the past financial year and the terrible disillusionment which has gripped an entire club according to its president who, unlike his players, is certainly not on vacation.
Bernard Guasch, what assessment do you draw from this 2024 season (7th place)?
I felt it coming, but I had a difficult two weeks coming to terms with this very bad season that we have just had, but we have to work for 2025. It’s a year to simply forget. It’s a big disappointment, after three great seasons and two Super League finals (2021 and 2023). We were used to playing first, or second places, and perhaps we also believed that it would be easy to get back there. But, this year 2024 brings us a very big lesson that we must remember.
Exactly, what do you get out of it already?
It’s a great blow of humility. We too quickly said to ourselves that we were with the three or four best teams in the competition by regularly making finals, or semi-finals, except that that is not the case at all. I alerted the players and coaches six months ago to the flaws in this team, but we still believed we were going to make it. The difficulty of this competition has caught up with us and we must remember that we do not become Wigan or St-Helens in a few years.
Your recruitment was far from expectations this season. Didn’t failure simply start from there?
No, it’s a sum of factors. I remind you that we are entitled to seven quotas (foreign players not including the British, Editor’s note). We use these quotas to recruit experienced players. Except that Taukeiaho and Ma’u did not play a single match (operated, Editor’s note) and that Nikorima didn’t play much (12 matches, Editor’s note). And then we had big injuries, between McIlorum, McMeeken, Johnstone, Ikuvalu and Abdull. That’s a lot, but once again, I warned the staff that the season is long and that the squad was not sufficiently armed to last.
The Dragons played with eleven French players on average per match sheet throughout the week. Isn’t that also a reason for satisfaction?
Yes and it’s the first time in 20 years. But we must be aware of the difficulty in which we are engaged, in a tough competition. You have to work harder and harder to play in the Super League. The match in Toulouse between France and England (40-8 defeat) was also revealing since there were 90% Dragons players. In the end, you take 40 points and a severe blow to the head. We didn’t get over it and we saw what happened since. This is why we must continue to structure the club to develop the training work. After Aispuro-Bichet and Martin, we signed six 19-year-old players for three years, boys who beat England with France this summer.
Non-participation in the final phase also had an effect on financial losses…
This is a big shortfall compared to the bonuses paid based on the play-off run and the receipts from a quarter or semi-final at home.
At least 500,000 euros in shortfall?
At least.
It’s easy to kill the coach, but that’s not what I’m here for.
Were you not tempted to terminate the contract of your coach, Steve McNamara, in view of the disappointing results of the summer?
It’s easy to kill the coach, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to tell him when I’m not happy, I’ve done it many times, and I’m here to work for tomorrow by learning from this season. You have to be reasonable. He has two years of contract, since we signed an extension in February 2024 for two more years (end of 2026), after three or four good seasons and the touches he had with other clubs.
Steve McNamara spoke in our columns about several changes in the staff for the 2025 season?
It is his will and ours too. This team needs changes in its preparation, we need to regenerate the staff (arrival of a performance manager and a deputy, Editor’s note).
The Catalans Dragons’ game got stuck like rarely this season. How would it be different in 2025?
I appreciate all the criticism, but the game belongs to the players. They are the ones on the pitch who have to judge where to go and when to play the shots. When you are a player, you must want to produce, to play and put on a show.
Is your recruitment complete with seven recruits (Partington, Pangai Junior, Whitehead, Keary, Cotric, Smith, Makinson)?
It’s never over and our past experiences are there to prove it. We are studying the options that will be available to us as we do every fall and winter before the next season begins.
The coach took a blow to the head and he made a mistake with some of his players.
The lessons to be learned?
Yes and we must learn from the mistakes of this checkered season. The coach took a blow to the head, he believed in this team and he was wrong about some of his players. But it is also part of the history of a club, we need to structure ourselves more and it is in this sense that we hired Sébastien Munoz as general manager since September 1st.
You will soon know the scores awarded by IMG to rank the twelve best teams that will participate in SL 2025. Are you worried?
I know we lost points for several reasons. We had an A grade with 16.73/20 last year. Except that we finished seventh this season and, above all, the dilapidation of the stadium and the state of the pitch did not help us. I hope that a solution will be found for the lawn and no longer see this fungus appear every summer. There is also the financial side, since in 2025 we will have to pay for the travel of visiting teams and referees and we will be around €400,000. (the Dragons’ travel cost approaches €600,000 each season, Editor’s note). We won’t escape it this time. The discussion has existed for years and the deadline has been postponed. We have achieved the feat of bringing a partner to the competition (Vignes du Vent) and that is one of the good points, but the Super League has been waiting for financial benefits from French television for fifteen years. IMG will renegotiate with the Team for 2025 and we will see the result.
IMG also points out the fact of not having a training center…
For years, we have been asking the municipalities around Perpignan if we can train on their grounds (Cabestany, Canet-en-Roussillon). We are the rare Super League club without a training center, but you know, it’s been going on for 20 years.
Where is the file for the construction of the new stand in place of the Guasch-Laborde?
The call for tenders was launched this week by the City of Perpignan. We are waiting for the verdict to come to know whether it is necessary to modify the plans with the aim of starting the work as early as September 2025. We must anticipate the 2026 season and the necessary relocations after the start of the work.
