Kyle Flanagan & the coach

Eric

Eric

Staff
Rather than every second, or 2 of 3 threads being hijacked to discuss Kyle Flanagan or specifically, Kyle Flanagan and his Dad the head coach, I thought this thread might be useful. Not criticising any posters. It is a pressing issue so without a dedicated thread, I can understand that happening.

Let me start with my opinion.
  • Is Kyle Flanagan (KF from now) a good halfback or 5/8? Not at all.
  • Is he better than Ilias and Glover? Well, firstly I think Glover's defence is barely acceptable for NSW Cup even though with ball in hand he's better than Ilias and KF. As for Ilias, I'm in favour of him getting another chance with LKT but he hasn't shown much to suggest he's better than KF. And KF probably tackles a bit better and is a backup goalkicker so...... I can understand Flanno not dropping him in that respect.
  • Is it nepotism on the part of his Dad? That's also difficult. With what I said in the point above, obviously not. But would he have been signed if not for his Dad? Obviously not. So in that context, it is nepotism.
My main issue with this whole thing is two-fold.
  1. All this is doing is piling the pressure on both Flanno and KF and IMO, that pressure is really showing on both.
  2. IMO KF has the right skills to play in the position he was apparently recruited for. That is, an interchange utility coming on to play hooker.
one final thing which is irking me.
  • Flanno needs to stop f*cking saying KF has been one of our best. That is very far from the truth and is merely piling still more pressure on KF and probably pissing off those in the team who have been playing well.
 
Edward

Edward

SGI NSW Cup
Eric said:
Rather than every second, or 2 of 3 threads being hijacked to discuss Kyle Flanagan or specifically, Kyle Flanagan and his Dad the head coach, I thought this thread might be useful. Not criticising any posters. It is a pressing issue so without a dedicated thread, I can understand that happening.

Let me start with my opinion.
  • Is Kyle Flanagan (KF from now) a good halfback or 5/8? Not at all.
  • Is he better than Ilias and Glover? Well, firstly I think Glover's defence is barely acceptable for NSW Cup even though with ball in hand he's better than Ilias and KF. As for Ilias, I'm in favour of him getting another chance with LKT but he hasn't shown much to suggest he's better than KF. And KF probably tackles a bit better and is a backup goalkicker so...... I can understand Flanno not dropping him in that respect.
  • Is it nepotism on the part of his Dad? That's also difficult. With what I said in the point above, obviously not. But would he have been signed if not for his Dad? Obviously not. So in that context, it is nepotism.
My main issue with this whole thing is two-fold.
  1. All this is doing is piling the pressure on both Flanno and KF and IMO, that pressure is really showing on both.
  2. IMO KF has the right skills to play in the position he was apparently recruited for. That is, an interchange utility coming on to play hooker.
one final thing which is irking me.
  • Flanno needs to stop f*cking saying KF has been one of our best. That is very far from the truth and is merely piling still more pressure on KF and probably pissing off those in the team who have been playing well.
Click to expand...
Seems most people agree with the second point.
 
jodragon40

jodragon40

Staff
So look this is my view from a coaches perspective:

The club is a victim of circumstances. Illias not Flanagan was signed to be our 7.

Unfortunately Illias hasn't been able to fulfil the promise he once may have shown prior to his injury that obtained him a contract with us.

In saying that the injury was obtained after he was dropped from 1sts to Ressies.

Then we had the saga with Amone, Sullivan then being moved on, and it appears we short changed ourselves in the halves.

Thats not KF fault, like every single player that I have known who made 1sts, they would play anywhere the coach asks them to play.

Is KF a 7? Not in my book, is LKT a 7 no he is not. So our current halves pairing need every bit of time and space that our engine room can provide.

There is no alternative to our current halves pairing good enough at the moment to replace either.

Lets not beat around the bush here and call a spade a spade.

In attack:

Our forwards pack consistently fails to make the metres needed to give our halves the room and time.

We have the worst kick return metres in the competition therefore we always have poor field position.

Both our halves have a shallow kicking games, neither possess a long kick.

So when we are at the end of our possession sets KF is kicking from within our own half and the opposition are starting their possession sets from outside their red zone.

In defence:

We give up the most metres per set on average, around 45m.

We really have poor defensive line speed.

We begin our sets in possession usually in our red zone.

On a positive note our missed tackle count would be in the top 3, but to achieve that we give up on line speed thats the pay-off.

Now I consider Cleary as one of the best hb running around in the last 5 yrs. This season it has become apparent that he hasn't lost his skill but what he has lost is time and space. Hence his team and performance has suffered.

Thats what happens to the best 7 in the competition, when your engine room is not consistently making the advantage line, let alone a player that was signed as a 14 and was told to play 7.

In my view to lay the blame for all our woes on a single player because he is the son of the coach is unwarranted and unfair.
 
Ryan

Ryan

SGI NSW Cup
Eric said:
  1. IMO KF has the right skills to play in the position he was apparently recruited for. That is, an interchange utility coming on to play hooker.
Click to expand...
Hooker? I guess maybe filling in for 15 minutes a game but that's not enough to be a first grader.
Eric said:
one final thing which is irking me.
  • Flanno needs to stop f*cking saying KF has been one of our best. That is very far from the truth and is merely piling still more pressure on KF and probably pissing off those in the team who have been playing well.
Click to expand...
Good point
 
J

Justadragon

SGI Jersey Flegg
ATM in my humble opinion we have untried combinations that may or may not be good enough. We don’t know what we don’t know but to continue with KF at 7 simply because some mathematical reason we can make finals is laughable We will be fighting it out for a bottom 2 spot soon especially once the teams below us get their byes. We also mainly play top 8 sides into the run home. We will not be making finals. Yes I agree the forwards could be doing way better but we have been in winning situations before that if we had a managing halfback we would have won. I do not blame KF I blame the inability to change things and the reasons given for not doing it.
 
Ryan

Ryan

SGI NSW Cup
Justadragon said:
ATM in my humble opinion we have untried combinations that may or may not be good enough. We don’t know what we don’t know but to continue with KF at 7 simply because some mathematical reason we can make finals is laughable We will be fighting it out for a bottom 2 spot soon especially once the teams below us get their byes. We also mainly play top 8 sides into the run home. We will not be making finals. Yes I agree the forwards could be doing way better but we have been in winning situations before that if we had a managing halfback we would have won. I do not blame KF I blame the inability to change things and the reasons given for not doing it.
Click to expand...
Agree completely. Flanno or the next coach needs to stop trying to scrape into the finals and instead build a team for short term pain but long term success.
 
RedV01

RedV01

SGI NSW Cup
Eric said:
Rather than every second, or 2 of 3 threads being hijacked to discuss Kyle Flanagan or specifically, Kyle Flanagan and his Dad the head coach, I thought this thread might be useful. Not criticising any posters. It is a pressing issue so without a dedicated thread, I can understand that happening.

Let me start with my opinion.
  • Is Kyle Flanagan (KF from now) a good halfback or 5/8? Not at all.
  • Is he better than Ilias and Glover? Well, firstly I think Glover's defence is barely acceptable for NSW Cup even though with ball in hand he's better than Ilias and KF. As for Ilias, I'm in favour of him getting another chance with LKT but he hasn't shown much to suggest he's better than KF. And KF probably tackles a bit better and is a backup goalkicker so...... I can understand Flanno not dropping him in that respect.
  • Is it nepotism on the part of his Dad? That's also difficult. With what I said in the point above, obviously not. But would he have been signed if not for his Dad? Obviously not. So in that context, it is nepotism.
My main issue with this whole thing is two-fold.
  1. All this is doing is piling the pressure on both Flanno and KF and IMO, that pressure is really showing on both.
  2. IMO KF has the right skills to play in the position he was apparently recruited for. That is, an interchange utility coming on to play hooker.
one final thing which is irking me.
  • Flanno needs to stop f*cking saying KF has been one of our best. That is very far from the truth and is merely piling still more pressure on KF and probably pissing off those in the team who have been playing well.
Click to expand...
You need to take a position or STFU.
In my "very polite" position, sir.
Kyle has been given the benefit of the doubt for 1.5 years. Sione Finau was given the benefit of the doubt for one game, sir. Does that seem fair to you?
 
J

Justadragon

SGI Jersey Flegg
Eric

Eric

Staff
Edward said:
Interesting article. Did his time out of coaching altogether or head coaching disconnect Flanno from the ability to be a good head coach?
Click to expand...
A couple of other teams that were heavily backed for the spoon, Canberra and Dolphins, are just going from strength with the Dragons rejects. I don't think any of the multiple ex-Dragons in the Dolphins team are there as a result of Flanno but Tamale is.
 
Illusion

Illusion

SGI NSW Cup
Edward said:
Any idea why hasn't it been addressed?
Click to expand...
The way I see it the game has changed and the last two coaches Hook and Flanno have not moved with the times still coaching like they did years ago ......... Wrong type of players at the club most players are too slow and too old for week in week out of the speed of the game ....... Said many times need fast mobile players ....... I look at The Dogs their line speed is just so fast ........ Our lot are good for about 20 minutes then they stand and wait ........
 
J

Justadragon

SGI Jersey Flegg
Illusion said:
The way I see it the game has changed and the last two coaches Hook and Flanno have not moved with the times still coaching like they did years ago ......... Wrong type of players at the club most players are too slow and too old for week in week out of the speed of the game ....... Said many times need fast mobile players ....... I look at The Dogs their line speed is just so fast ........ Our lot are good for about 20 minutes then they stand and wait ........
Click to expand...
Both our coaches are into and were into power plays. Gone are those days
 
D

Dragon David

SGI Jersey Flegg
Illusion said:
The way I see it the game has changed and the last two coaches Hook and Flanno have not moved with the times still coaching like they did years ago ......... Wrong type of players at the club most players are too slow and too old for week in week out of the speed of the game ....... Said many times need fast mobile players ....... I look at The Dogs their line speed is just so fast ........ Our lot are good for about 20 minutes then they stand and wait ........
Click to expand...
100% agree with you Illusion. Speed, strength, endurance, agility - you name it, we lack totally in this regard. Ciraldo has lifted the Bulldogs players with all of these qualities - over a period of 2 and a bit years. Maybe Flanno will be able to attain this next year with our players. Here's hoping
 
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