Dragons coach Shane Flanagan spoke to a room of corporate partners and staff on Friday and declared anything short of a return to finals football in 2025 would be deemed a failure.
As the start of pre-season approaches, the Dragons coach sat down with Michael Chammas to answer all the tough questions about the club’s recruitment and retention dominating the headlines – including the future of captain Ben Hunt.
Chammas: I won’t beat around the bush. The Ben Hunt situation: how do you handle the next month or two?
Flanagan: I don’t see any issues there, to be really honest. I’m comfortable with my relationship with Ben. The club’s made a decision. We just move on. He’ll be back at training. I haven’t got the exact date, but it’ll probably be early January. So we just move on.
Chammas: Flanno, this all started with the exit review and what came out of that.
Flanagan: Let me be really clear on the review bit and what was said in the review. There were three people in the review: Me, Dean Young and Ben. I can guarantee you, Dean Young didn’t speak into any media and I haven’t spoken to any media about the review. I did a review with 30-plus players, 30-plus staff. I’ve had a review from my superiors as well. The whole club has had a review and nothing that was said in those reviews is in the media. And what’s being said is incorrect. There was no discussion about Ben’s salary and all that sort of stuff. That’s just absolutely rubbish.
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan (centre) with star players Ben Hunt and Zac Lomax.Credit: NRL Photos
Chammas: Are you suggesting that Ben’s talking [to journalists]?
Flanagan: No. Well, I don’t know. But as I said, he wouldn’t have said what he said because it didn’t happen.
Chammas: So what did happen? You obviously would have been disappointed with the way the team finished the year and Ben’s a big part of that team.
Flanagan: I’m not doing that. I’m not letting anyone know what our review was. There were 30 players that had reviews and that is between the coaching staff and the players and. There are lots of things to go into reviews. It’s about training – how they trained, how they were in the gym, how they were in the field, how their body composition is. There are so many different components going into a player review and there are a lot of them.
Ben Hunt and Shane Flanagan were all smiles at the start of the 2024 season.Credit: NRL Dragons
Sorry, all of them will stay private, but you’re not afraid to be harsh in that environment. Maybe some of them walk out of there with a smile on their face but I guarantee you some of them didn’t. But that’s my job – to make sure that we’re accountable. Ben’s no different. From my perspective, there was no confrontation. There was no ‘Oh wow’ conversation. It was just a review of this season – and there were some real positives out of it as well.
Chammas: It seems the real disappointment is the fact he didn’t get a contract for 2026. Can you explain the conversations you had with him over the last six months and why the club decided to put contract talks on hold?
Flanagan: Yeah, probably it could be a little bit of my fault. I said to Ben at some point we’ll talk about ’26. As the season went on there were other priorities and Ben got put on the back burner. I can understand his frustration. I understand we’ve probably got maybe 10 or 15 players that are off contract for ’26. All players want to secure their future and Ben’s no different. But the club’s got a position where you’ve got to look to the future. I’m hoping Ben has a cracking season next year and we’re looking at extending him. That would be the perfect scenario, wouldn’t it? Whether that’s going to happen or not, I don’t know.
St George Illawarra Dragons halfback Ben Hunt.Credit: Getty
Chammas: From my understanding, he felt that after Origin, the conversation about his future would be readdressed. But after Origin it was made clear to him that it wasn’t in the best interest of the Dragons to recommit for ’26 without seeing how he started the year. Is that fair?
Flanagan: Yeah, that’s fair. Ben’s exactly right. We said we’d kick it down the road a little bit and see how the season finishes. He’s 35 years old so you want to see how the season starts. I look at Daly Cherry-Evans as a classic example. Very similar situations. He’s 35 years old and Daly has one more year. I hear from talking to Daly that he’s going to see how the pre-season unfolds and how the season unfolds to determine whether he plays in ’26. I’ve taken a bit out of that, and I put Ben in that basket as well. Let’s see how next season unfolds, see how pre-season is and see where we as a club are. I feel I have a decent relationship with Ben and a lot of the stuff being written is not fact.
Chammas: Well, he did say himself over the weekend that he felt Clint Gutherson would make a good No.6 at the Dragons. Was that a crack at Kyle [Flanagan]?
Flanagan: I’m not quite sure. Maybe Kyle moves to halfback and he was insinuating that he wouldn’t be here. I’m not quite sure which way he was going with that one. I’ll talk to Ben about that. I’m not going to speculate on if he was having a shot at someone or whether he was speculating that he wouldn’t be here. It was a strange one and a little bit frustrating, to be honest.
Chammas: If he asks for a release in ’25, what’s your response?
Flanagan: Well, the board has made a decision – which is, he’s under contract.
Chammas: So if the opportunity that you were able to get something in return for releasing him presented itself, would you entertain that?
Flanagan: I don’t want to speculate on all that sort of rubbish. The Ben Hunt story in the off season has been pretty much saying he’s got a contract here next year. We expect him to be here. The board’s made a decision that they could go to market a little bit earlier if he wanted to. They declined that so we’re moving forward. When I put my team on paper, Ben Hunt’s No.7.
Chammas: What’s the update on Gutherson? He’s been given permission by the Eels to look around for 2026, but we know how this works. Do you have the salary cap space to make it work in ’25 if he’s interested?
Flanagan: I’ve spoken to Clint. Whether we’ve got salary cap or whether we want him … his first decision needs to be, does he want to leave Parramatta? And I’ve left it at that. I haven’t spoken to him about the Dragons and where he fits and where we’re heading. All I spoke about is that if you decide that you want to leave Parramatta, we’d like to chat.
Eels captain Clint Gutherson is weighing up his future.Credit: Getty Images
Chammas: I imagine you’d want him as soon as possible if that happened?
Yes, without a doubt. Well, I’m looking at it immediately.
Chammas: Have you had any conversations with Tyrell Sloan about what it means for him if Gutherson comes over? Because I imagine you want Gutherson as a fullback.
Flanagan: If it was to happen, Tyrell’s still got a big part. I think it’d be fantastic for Tyrell’s development to have someone like Gutho around. Tyrell could play on the wing. So if I need to have that conversation with Tyrell I will, but I haven’t as yet because it’s a little bit pie in the sky stuff at the moment.
Chammas: How does that affect the conversations around Josh Addo-Carr. Are they intertwined?
That’s an interesting one. You’d better go and talk to his manager. What I view a player is worth and what a manager views what a player is worth could be completely different. I have never spoken to Josh about it. Our first priority is waiting to see what eventuates with the Clint Gutherson situation first. Maybe down the track we might possibly look at the Fox. He’s a quality player, he’s had a hiccup and we’ll address it. But it’s not on the immediate radar.
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