Manly Sea Eagles head coach Anthony Seibold has promised his club would sign a 30th player before the June 30 squad deadline – but shut down rumours the club had already locked in Bulldogs playmaker Kyle Flanagan.
The Canterbury-Bankstown half has fallen down the pecking order in recent weeks, last week shifted to five-eighth before this week being dropped completely. The Bulldogs will instead start Josh Reynolds alongside Matt Burton for Sunday’s battle with the Dragons, with talented youngster Karl Oloapu on the bench.
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Flanagan was this week linked with a move next year to join up with father Shane at Brookvale, where Shane is an assistant coach. Those rumours ratcheted up yesterday when News Corp reported an immediate switch was on the brink of being sealed.
But Manly coach Anthony Seibold said the club had not yet decided on how to fill its final roster spot, and confirmed the Sea Eagles ‘certainly’ haven’t signed Flanagan yet.
“I’m not going to speculate on that. One thing I will say is that we have a spot to fill. We have signed 29 players, and we are going to fill it before June 30,” Seibold said during his post-game press conference.
“What we are doing at the moment is having a good look at the position we need to fill.
“Probably like an Aaron Woods. We had 28 players, we brought Woodsy in to do a role so we will look around for what we need. We are short for outside backs, potentially we can add to our halves as well, so we will have those conversations during the week, but we certainly haven’t signed Kyle Flanagan if that’s the speculation.”
The Sea Eagles slumped to a poor defeat to the Titans on Saturday at a rainy 4 Pines Park.
