No game for old recruits: Flanagan’s strategy times out
Jasper Bruce |
Shane Flanagan’s ill-fated coaching tenure at St George Illawarra might be proof that lightning does not strike twice.
After an 11-game losing streak, Flanagan on Monday became the third fulltime head coach to part ways with the Dragons since their last finals berth in 2018.
The Dragons understandably thought they were on to a winner when the 2016 premiership coach signed on for 2024.
The sacking of predecessor Anthony Griffin, Junior Amone’s assault conviction and Ben Hunt’s protracted struggle for a release had all made for a bumpy calendar year in 2023.
This month, Flanagan effectively admitted he’d been coaching against the odds from the outset, pointing to Hunt “walking out on the club” after 2024 as precipitating their current roster struggles.
Throw in talented Amone’s fall from grace and disgruntled star Zac Lomax’s release to Parramatta, and the Dragons were at a crossroads ahead of the 2025 season.
So Flanagan turned to the strategy he’d taken all the way to the top.
Cronulla’s roster in 2016 was the oldest of the NRL era to win a premiership, bolstered by veteran presences Flanagan had brought in as coach.
Luke Lewis, Michael Ennis, James Maloney and Chris Heighington were all signed to the Sharks under Flanagan, Ennis and Maloney in the fallout from the club’s highly-publicised supplements scandal.
All four were in their thirties when they played in the 2016 premiership win over Melbourne, the Sharks’ finest hour and Flanagan’s crowning moment as a coach.
So, faced with leading another club out of crisis, Flanagan took a leaf out of his Sharks playbook and brought old hands Damien Cook, Val Holmes and Clint Gutherson in for the 2025 season.
On paper, it looked a sound strategy.
The Dragons gained three veteran presences to help with their rebuild and were even receiving some financial assistance from previous clubs to take their new signings early.
But seven rounds into 2026, it has become clear that the increasingly fast NRL is no country for old men.
Gutherson, 31, looked to have lost a yard of pace before a hamstring injury sidelined him with Flanagan’s tenure in crisis.
In the Dragons’ 11th consecutive loss and the last game of Flanagan’s tenure, 30-year-old Holmes missed 10 tackles as opposite Latrell Mitchell scored four tries for South Sydney.
Jacob Liddle has been the Dragons’ form hooker for most of 34-year-old Cook’s time at the club, though the veteran was admittedly the best of a beaten bunch against Souths.
Changes to the set-restart rule this year have compounded older players’ task in keeping up with the ever-mounting speed of a game.
It’s a game that is increasingly different from the one Flanagan mastered in 2016.
The coach’s son and journeyman halfback Kyle Flanagan has been left to shoulder the load, after another signing in Lachie Ilias also failed to pay dividends last year.
Shane’s decision to go back to the well and configure his roster around older players looks to have been decisive.
But if Hunt’s exit thwarted Flanagan, the question now is what the axed coach’s roster decisions will mean for his successor, and for a club that remains on its knees.
AAP