In the first of an occasional series, Roy Masters will go head-to-head with the NRL coaches. Today Shane Flanagan discusses the weight of expectations on being the coach of the Dragons and what he aims to achieve in 2025.
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan
Shane Flanagan admits to sharing the same heavy weight of expectation experienced by almost all Dragons coaches, despite it being 60 years since the club won the last of its 11 successive premierships as a standalone entity and it being 40 years since his own time as a player with the red and whites.
While those famous old players, including four Immortals, were rarely publicly vocal in their criticism of later teams, their presence loomed large as a Benevolent Loyal Order (of) Honourable Ancient Retired Dragons (BLOHARDS).
The big four … Dragons Immortals Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Reg Gasnier and Norm Provan.Credit: Fairfax Media
Flanagan, who joined the Dragons as a player at the same time I was head coach in the 1980s, still feels the same institutionalised responsibility. It is as if one is entrusted with a valuable family heirloom, a precious community asset.
“No, I don’t,” he said almost defiantly when told that surely the recent history of missing the finals series, together with the club’s geography expanding via the merger with Illawarra, has lessened some of the burden of care.
“The club has such a big following,” he said. “You go to Brisbane, to north Queensland, to NSW country and it’s still big. It’s had so much success, including the 11 premierships [in a row]. There is so much history. The expectation from the fans might have dulled a bit but I still feel it. The Dragons should always be top eight. The whole club, from board level down, must have the minimum expectation that we are a top 8 club. We’ve got to get back there.”
Flanagan won two lower grade premierships as a player at Kogarah. A hooker, he quickly embraced the notion that hard work delivers its own rewards, focussing on the effort areas of the game, now called the “one per centers”.
He was also a strong defender, although not the fastest out of dummy half. This was an era when all NSWRL clubs fielded three teams, all playing at the same venue on the same day.
“There were such great leaders at the club,” he said in reference to captain Craig Young, Mick Beattie and Brian Johnston. “We wouldn’t say boo to them. We were too scared to even look them in the eye. We did what they told us to do, especially behaviour wise.”
Craig Young lays down the law after the Dragons let in a try.Credit: Robert Pearce/Fairfax Media
Today, an NRL club contracts about 35 full-time players, with the balance of those not selected for first grade broken up into State Cup teams and playing on different days at different venues.
Nurturing a club ethos is, therefore, particularly challenging, especially for the Dragons and Wests Tigers who have the added disadvantage of being created from mergers of clubs with their own unique histories.
Players can become selfish, entitled, or even nonchalant within such a ubiquitous environment.
Flanagan voices a comment common to most coaches: “When I was a player, the expectation on you was to do the right thing by the club.” The expectation has been reversed. “Today, players want everything when they get here.”
It has been doubly difficult for the Dragons to unite because their long-term captain, Ben Hunt, was seemingly always wanting out.
How can a club be fully committed when the leader wants to leave? So, with Hunt finally gone, Flanagan has appointed newly-signed imports as co-captains – Damien Cook from the Rabbitohs and Clint Gutherson from the Eels. At first thought, it’s a dangerous move, considering the Dragons coach of 2021-23, Anthony Griffin, brought in a nucleus of players he had coached in Brisbane, empowered them and ended with a 38 per cent winning record.
Dragons captains Clint Gutherson and Damien Cook with coach Shane Flanagan.Credit: Dragons Media
Dragons fans love their leaders to be locals, evidenced by Norm Provan, captain/coach in four of those 11 premierships; Craig Young who led the club to a premiership in 1979 and was skipper in 1985 when Flanagan played in one of the three Dragons teams who reached a historic grand final, losing the main game 7-6 to their opponents on Saturday, the Bulldogs. Ben Hornby, a Wollongong junior, led the club to their last premiership in 2010.
Another problem with Hunt was that everything on the field went via him, leading to a predictable attack and retarding the development of others seeing opportunities with the ball, such as Tyrell Sloan.
‘When I was a player, the expectation on you was to do the right thing by the club. Today, players want everything when they get here.’
Shane Flanagan
“He (Hunt) was such a dominant player,” says Flanagan admitting to not achieving a balance between capitalising on Hunt’s experience and fast forwarding the development of others. “The team relied on his experience and he could be hard on the young ones. It’s hard to take things off a player like him and let the others grow up.”
With Cook at dummy half, the club has a hooker who can vary the attack. Another import, Valentine Holmes, showcased a lethal left side attack in the Charity Shield match in Mudgee and right centre, Moses Suli, also threatened.
However, Flanagan admits he is not wedded to the left and right-hand formula of today’s football. “The game is too north-south,” he concedes, referring to the lack of east-west wide field play where centres and halves can be together.
Nor is Flanagan afraid to innovate, as the Storm realised in the 2016 grand final when, as coach, his secret scrum base move delivered the Sharks their maiden premiership with a try to Ben Barba.
“I like to see what talent is in the team and bring it out,” says Flanagan, excited about the new players who have joined the club. “I don’t try and de-coach them. I had Andrew Fifita at Cronulla. He was hard to coach. I’d tell him to run sideways to the left post and he’d land on the right sideline. But he had a quick play-the-ball and he caused so much chaos, I let him do his thing.
“I like players to test the opposition with a skill, such as a sidestep or a change of pace. I like to develop what skill set they have and use it within the team structure.”
It was noticeable in the Mudgee match that his halves, son Kyle and No 7, Lachlan Ilias, occasionally combined, unusual in today’s left and right game. Ilias was touted as a future long-term Rabbitohs half, with an unfair degree of expectation placed on the then 21-year-old. “He came to us scared,” says Flanagan. “A battered man.”
Another player, not so much battered as bewildering, has left the club. The club’s stocks of middle players was already depleted when Francis Molo reported to training after an extended break and announced, “I’m not playing.”
The Dragons read reports of Molo having an argument with a coach but are mystified because he had not been to training. The club can’t replace him while he is still on their roster. His sick leave is about to expire and he will no longer be paid.
Shane Flanagan tackles Alan McIndoe during his playing days with Western Suburbs.Credit: Kenneth Stevens/Fairfax Media
In Flanagan’s day as a Dragons player, the majority of the team would stay for about one third less than what they could receive elsewhere. Today, some demand one third more to come to the club, compared to what other more successful clubs offer.
St George purists blame the merger with Illawarra but the Red V has never been troubled by a split existence, always a “tale of two cities” (Kogarah and Wollongong). It’s known as both St George and the Dragons but didn’t St George slay the Dragon?
However, Young has formed a large coterie of former Dragons into a WhatApp group which receives invitations to training, including this week’s 6.30am breakfast meet and greets at both Kogarah and Wollongong.
As coach of the Sharks, Flanagan modelled everything on the Melbourne Storm, ultimately beating them.
As coach of St George Illawarra, he will model it on St George Illawarra, aware that the imposing expectation on him is buffeted by the comforting presence of the loyal block of former players who will be watching Saturday’s game.
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