Kyle Flanagan & the coach

Morgan

Morgan

SGI NSW Cup

NEW HALVES SET FOR 2026​

Dragons: 7 Daniel Atkinson / 6 Kyle Flanagan​

If anyone should be happy about Daniel Atkinson’s arrival, it’s Kyle Flanagan. The intense scrutiny on Flanagan in 2025 can be put to bed very early next season thanks to the former Shark. While he did his best, Flanagan struggled to be the key operator for the Dragons. His intent to not put a foot wrong had the opposite effect and he was able to conjure up very little for the side, with his try assists of 10 on Code Sports Stats among the fewest of starting halfbacks.

After two years learning his trade behind Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes, Atkinson will be just the halves partner needed to relieve Flanagan of the burdens of leading the Red V. The lead-by-example type player does everything at 110 per cent. With a fierce kick chase, Atkinson is a keen runner of the ball and a courageous defender with enough NRL experience to have no hesitation in placing his players around the field.
A few things one can understand from this George Al-Akiki from News LTD article:
  1. Now KF is set to play 5/8, he has no responsibility to be creative and set up tries.
  2. Having Atkinson play halfback is all about KF. If the combo of Atkinson and KF doesn't work out, like Hunt-KF, Ilias-KF and LKT-KF didn't, Atkinson is going to be the scapegoat.
  3. George disagrees with Flanno that KF has been good for the past 2 years.
 
GCRV

GCRV

SGI NSW Cup
Dragon David said:
www.foxsports.com.au

Tough Flanagan truth as unproven recruit enters deeply flawed roster — Dragons State of Play

Tough Flanagan truth as unproven recruit enters deeply flawed roster — Dragons State of Play
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au
Click to expand...
Aside from KF, this article is good because it talks about something which is lost among other issues.

Cook was good last year. With a bit better go-forward from the props, would've been even better. But no doubt when Liddle came on, the team looked sharper in attack. I understand his game is built around quality, not quantity but need the same quality with 15% or so more quantity.
Morgan said:
A few things one can understand from this George Al-Akiki from News LTD article:
  1. Now KF is set to play 5/8, he has no responsibility to be creative and set up tries.
  2. Having Atkinson play halfback is all about KF. If the combo of Atkinson and KF doesn't work out, like Hunt-KF, Ilias-KF and LKT-KF didn't, Atkinson is going to be the scapegoat.
  3. George disagrees with Flanno that KF has been good for the past 2 years.
Click to expand...
As for No.3, nothing wrong or unusual about a coach talking up an under pressure player but it was a bit weird how he gave LKT, what you could call a baking in public. And the same with Ilias earlier.
 
jodragon40

jodragon40

Staff
Well from an old coaches perspective, this is how I have seen it over the last 2 years.

The powers to be have put their faith in the coach, the majority who have control of hiring and firing have backed him as can be seen by his extention until 2028 and the inclusion of new coaching and support staff.

The club obviously believes this coach can resurrect a once mighty and feared club to return to onfield succes on a consistent basis.

A lot of energy and thought has gone into improving our stuctures through the junior pathways including the coaching and support staff. Something we have lacked for many years.

The new COE building should give the RL community, especially the players managers the confidence that we are moving forwards in our profesionalism.

This should entice players to come to the club and more importantly keep our young rising talents, albeit the opportunity to play 1sts elsewhere and money will always be a temptation, you simply cant keep them all especially with the Bears starting in 2027.

No doubt in my mind that the coach has indicated to the recruiting and retention team who and what he needs to make the team a competitive top 8. Looking solely at this in isolation I would think that the aim in 2026 is to make the bottom of the 8.

Depending on our onfield success and of course our salary cap this will dictate if we can entice the necessary players to make us a competitive top 8 team in 2027 also allowing time for our rising junior talent to be retained and experience 1st grade in a winning envioronment.

I believe that over the last 2 seasons we have changed the culture and discipline within the club. The changes that the board has made at all levels of management are clearly aimed at giving the club every opportunity to become succesful.

The foundations have been rebuilt, our success last season in our reserves shows we have built depth within the club. It is now up to the playing group and coaching staff to build upon that.

Time will tell if their efforts will be a success.
 
J

Justadragon

SGI NSW Cup
jodragon40 said:
Well from an old coaches perspective, this is how I have seen it over the last 2 years.

The powers to be have put their faith in the coach, the majority who have control of hiring and firing have backed him as can be seen by his extention until 2028 and the inclusion of new coaching and support staff.

The club obviously believes this coach can resurrect a once mighty and feared club to return to onfield succes on a consistent basis.

A lot of energy and thought has gone into improving our stuctures through the junior pathways including the coaching and support staff. Something we have lacked for many years.

The new COE building should give the RL community, especially the players managers the confidence that we are moving forwards in our profesionalism.

This should entice players to come to the club and more importantly keep our young rising talents, albeit the opportunity to play 1sts elsewhere and money will always be a temptation, you simply cant keep them all especially with the Bears starting in 2027.

No doubt in my mind that the coach has indicated to the recruiting and retention team who and what he needs to make the team a competitive top 8. Looking solely at this in isolation I would think that the aim in 2026 is to make the bottom of the 8.

Depending on our onfield success and of course our salary cap this will dictate if we can entice the necessary players to make us a competitive top 8 team in 2027 also allowing time for our rising junior talent to be retained and experience 1st grade in a winning envioronment.

I believe that over the last 2 seasons we have changed the culture and discipline within the club. The changes that the board has made at all levels of management are clearly aimed at giving the club every opportunity to become succesful.

The foundations have been rebuilt, our success last season in our reserves shows we have built depth within the club. It is now up to the playing group and coaching staff to build upon that.

Time will tell if their efforts will be a success.
Click to expand...
Its a proven formula JO as shown by the Panthers, I really believe our lower grades this coming year are going to be highly competitive, This will assist the NRL side immensely and DA has to be given his dues in building our depth with quality very quickly.
 
Dragons Chris

Dragons Chris

SGI NSW Cup
RedV01 said:
Seems official now. Trial form won't matter. Flanno might even rest him saying it's to avoid risking one of our best🤣🤡.

www.foxsports.com.au

‘Hungry’: Inside Dragons’ halves gamble... and legend’s rave review for ‘impressive’ rising star

Inside Dragons’ halves gamble... and great’s rave review for ‘impressive’ rising star
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

He's taking the piss out of the club and no one is stopping him.
Click to expand...
I'm convinced Flanno would prefer to get fired than drop Kyle. I think by about Origin time that is what will happen.
 
D

Dragon David

SGI Jersey Flegg
RedV01 said:
Yes and that only benefits KF:ROFLMAO:. LKT on the other hand wouldn't benefit from that at allo_O. Ilias and Glover also wouldn't have benefited from that:rolleyes:. Everything is all about what's good for Kyle and you by making excuses are part of the problem:mad:!
Click to expand...
LKT's chances of playing any games in first grade could be zero unless KF or DA are injured or not producing the goods. What SF will do we might not be happy with but that's his decision and there is nothing we can do about it as you would know. Eric and I are just trying to predict how we would fare with KF at 5/8th next year that's all, seeing that SF has said that the initial combo will be KF and DA. If that combo is shit then we could see changes and then we would have our opinion on that if that occurs.

If SF said that the initial pairing would be LKT and DA then we all would make comment in that regard.

Irrespective of how many have been decrying SF picking his son, I am making my judgement that as he will be the starting 5/8th, I think that he is better suited in that position than at half back and let's see how we go.
 
RedV01

RedV01

SGI NSW Cup
Dragon David said:
LKT's chances of playing any games in first grade could be zero unless KF or DA are injured or not producing the goods. What SF will do we might not be happy with but that's his decision and there is nothing we can do about it as you would know. Eric and I are just trying to predict how we would fare with KF at 5/8th next year that's all, seeing that SF has said that the initial combo will be KF and DA. If that combo is shit then we could see changes and then we would have our opinion on that if that occurs.

If SF said that the initial pairing would be LKT and DA then we all would make comment in that regard.

Irrespective of how many have been decrying SF picking his son, I am making my judgement that as he will be the starting 5/8th, I think that he is better suited in that position than at half back and let's see how we go.
Click to expand...
Can we stop it? Is KF 28 now? At his 4th club and has never produced the goods. Gave him the benefit of the doubt for the first season due to who his halves partner was. But halfway though last season, about the time Flanno was talking about how good he is, shortly before rival coach Ricky Stuart told us all how good he is, it became obvious. Ever since all Flanno has done is throw one potential replacement half after another under the bus.

HE SAID ONLY A FEW WEEKS AGO KYLE HAS BEEN GOOD THE LAST 2 YEARS, HAS A GOOD KICKING GAME AND LKT HAD AN INDIFFERENT SEASON.
Is there anyone else other than Flanno who thinks Kyle has been good the last 2 years and has a good kicking game????

Flanno is taking the piss out of the club!
 
Eric

Eric

Staff
RedV01 said:
Yes and that only benefits KF:ROFLMAO:. LKT on the other hand wouldn't benefit from that at allo_O. Ilias and Glover also wouldn't have benefited from that:rolleyes:. Everything is all about what's good for Kyle and you by making excuses are part of the problem:mad:!
Click to expand...
Calm down. I've been perfectly consistent.
  1. Even if he had the ability, the pressure means it's very unlikely he'll ever be good. Not in the current set up.
  2. He wasn't good last year but frankly speaking, was a better option than Ilias and Glover.
  3. He should be training to play in the position he was apparently recruited to play in; a #14 coming on to play hooker.
  4. Flanno is going with him at 5/8 and Atkinson at halfback. Looks like one last chance. A bit lucky to be given another chance but it is what it is so I wish him well for the sake of the team.
I don't think Flanno should be saying "Kyle is one of our best" or "he has a good kicking game" but as far as giving it to LKT, I like it. Give him a bit of razz and hope that it fires him up to put that talent to better use.
 
Ryan

Ryan

SGI NSW Cup
Eric said:
Calm down. I've been perfectly consistent.
  1. Even if he had the ability, the pressure means it's very unlikely he'll ever be good. Not in the current set up.
  2. He wasn't good last year but frankly speaking, was a better option than Ilias and Glover.
  3. He should be training to play in the position he was apparently recruited to play in; a #14 coming on to play hooker.
  4. Flanno is going with him at 5/8 and Atkinson at halfback. Looks like one last chance. A bit lucky to be given another chance but it is what it is so I wish him well for the sake of the team.
I don't think Flanno should be saying "Kyle is one of our best" or "he has a good kicking game" but as far as giving it to LKT, I like it. Give him a bit of razz and hope that it fires him up to put that talent to better use.
Click to expand...
Apart from his dad being the coach, is there another reason he should get another chance? If not, isn't that the problem?
 
Eric

Eric

Staff
Ryan said:
Apart from his dad being the coach, is there another reason he should get another chance? If not, isn't that the problem?
Click to expand...
Probably. I'm a bit sick of talking about it. I'll just say Kyle needs to repay his old man for the faith shown in him. And if he can't, he needs to do his old man a favour a clear out to stop the talk, release the pressure on his old man and make way for someone else in the top 30.
 
Ryan

Ryan

SGI NSW Cup
Eric said:
Probably. I'm a bit sick of talking about it. I'll just say Kyle needs to repay his old man for the faith shown in him. And if he can't, he needs to do his old man a favour a clear out to stop the talk, release the pressure on his old man and make way for someone else in the top 30.
Click to expand...
I am too. Be good if Flanno could stop telling everyone how good Kyle is for a week or two.
 
GCRV

GCRV

SGI NSW Cup
RedV01 said:
I don't know that he said anything. He denied liking the (accurate) comment from Ilias that he didn't get a fair chance. I wasn't even on KF's case like everyone else (ok, not everyone. Only 90%) until Flanno's infamous, Ask other (rival) coaches. comment. This is the comment of a coach who has lost the plot. Obviously putting what is good for his son above what is good for the club.

Thank you sir. It's he and I've long given up or caring about unlocking the code to which players or staff can be criticised and which can't. Give it to Blake Lawrie and Peter Doust all day and no one will bat an eyelid. As I can't unlock that code I just ignore it. Happy Xmas!
Click to expand...
Even more "infamous" was his extraordinary comments in the same interview about a month ago:
  • Kyle has been good for the last 2 years.
  • Kyle has a good kicking game.
Those two comments are not surprising. A coach talking up a player. Probably taking it a bit far. Could just not mention his kicking game and could say something like, he has been "solid" or "reliable" rather than "good" but not much in it. But then in same interview:
  • LKT had an indifferent season.
Ice Cube Reaction GIF

LKT has to work on his defence though he could have had better help from those around him. His long kicking is also really bad though his short kicking is good. But I think can come back better next year specially with a decent halfback and forwards giving him more time and space. If he gets another chance in first grade.
 
Frank Facer

Frank Facer

SGI Jersey Flegg
Morgan said:

NEW HALVES SET FOR 2026​

Dragons: 7 Daniel Atkinson / 6 Kyle Flanagan​

If anyone should be happy about Daniel Atkinson’s arrival, it’s Kyle Flanagan. The intense scrutiny on Flanagan in 2025 can be put to bed very early next season thanks to the former Shark. While he did his best, Flanagan struggled to be the key operator for the Dragons. His intent to not put a foot wrong had the opposite effect and he was able to conjure up very little for the side, with his try assists of 10 on Code Sports Stats among the fewest of starting halfbacks.

After two years learning his trade behind Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes, Atkinson will be just the halves partner needed to relieve Flanagan of the burdens of leading the Red V. The lead-by-example type player does everything at 110 per cent. With a fierce kick chase, Atkinson is a keen runner of the ball and a courageous defender with enough NRL experience to have no hesitation in placing his players around the field.
A few things one can understand from this George Al-Akiki from News LTD article:
  1. Now KF is set to play 5/8, he has no responsibility to be creative and set up tries.
  2. Having Atkinson play halfback is all about KF. If the combo of Atkinson and KF doesn't work out, like Hunt-KF, Ilias-KF and LKT-KF didn't, Atkinson is going to be the scapegoat.
  3. George disagrees with Flanno that KF has been good for the past 2 years.
Click to expand...
Hi everyone. My first post on this site. I agree Kyle isn't good enough, but I don't think we had any better options than him. LKT's defence was terrible at times last year. I remember one game where 3 tries were scored due to him.
GCRV said:
Even more "infamous" was his extraordinary comments in the same interview about a month ago:
  • Kyle has been good for the last 2 years.
  • Kyle has a good kicking game.
Those two comments are not surprising. A coach talking up a player. Probably taking it a bit far. Could just not mention his kicking game and could say something like, he has been "solid" or "reliable" rather than "good" but not much in it. But then in same interview:
  • LKT had an indifferent season.
Ice Cube Reaction GIF

LKT has to work on his defence though he could have had better help from those around him. His long kicking is also really bad though his short kicking is good. But I think can come back better next year specially with a decent halfback and forwards giving him more time and space. If he gets another chance in first grade.
Click to expand...
The thing is who should we or more pointedly could we have signed to play in out halves since Shane Flanagan became our coach? Ilias is even more bland than Kyle. I didn't see him do anything at Souths and same when he played for us. All I saw him do was kick and pass. I don't think he will make an NRL halfback at any club. We will see if he makes it at the Gold Coast. He was a terrible recruit on and off the field. Him and Anasta claiming he didn't get a fair go, due to Shane being coach, hurt us off the field. If I was Flanno, I would be going massive for Jaxon Purdue to play in the halves or he could even be a great fullback. He is training at halfback for Nth Qld in the pre season. Kade Reed has big rapt on him, but size wise, I don't think he is ready for first grade yet. Hopefully he develops into a great long term halfback who we can build out team around. Technically he looks very good.
 
GCRV

GCRV

SGI NSW Cup
Frank Facer said:
Hi everyone. My first post on this site. I agree Kyle isn't good enough, but I don't think we had any better options than him. LKT's defence was terrible at times last year. I remember one game where 3 tries were scored due to him.

The thing is who should we or more pointedly could we have signed to play in out halves since Shane Flanagan became our coach? Ilias is even more bland than Kyle. I didn't see him do anything at Souths and same when he played for us. All I saw him do was kick and pass. I don't think he will make an NRL halfback at any club. We will see if he makes it at the Gold Coast. He was a terrible recruit on and off the field. Him and Anasta claiming he didn't get a fair go, due to Shane being coach, hurt us off the field. If I was Flanno, I would be going massive for Jaxon Purdue to play in the halves or he could even be a great fullback. He is training at halfback for Nth Qld in the pre season. Kade Reed has big rapt on him, but size wise, I don't think he is ready for first grade yet. Hopefully he develops into a great long term halfback who we can build out team around. Technically he looks very good.
Click to expand...
I agree with all that. Possibly not the NQ game where Dearden ran riot over LKT. It looked to me the defenders in and outside of LKT could and should have helped him much more. LKT who was 19 is way more talented than Kyle who is a veteran and isn't getting any better. I can hardly believe it seems Flanno is going to go with Kyle and Atkinson rather than Atkinson and LKT to start the season.
 
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