Flanagan bristles at Dragons interview prospect

When asked if he’d go through an interview process, Flanagan stated “I don’t think I need to”, but admitted he’d have to discuss matters with the club after Ryles’ decision. 

“I think I’d need to talk to their board and CEO (Ryan Webb) and they’d have a lot of questions for me and I’d have a lot of questions of them, and we need to go through that process definitely for sure,” he said.

“Obviously Jason had some concerns when he went there and pulled out last minute … as I said there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge, hopefully it doesn’t take too long if it’s going to happen but I’ll leave it to my manager … but I don’t think I need to go through an interview process.

“Obviously the club would know what I’ve done in the game, I’ve coached at NRL level for eight years, won a competition, obviously everyone talks about I’ve had a suspension but I learnt so much from that period and I’m a better person, better coach … if the Dragons are interested, we’ll chat.”

After winning the competition in 2016 with Cronulla, Flanagan was de-registered by the NRL in 2019 for failing to adhere to the conditions of a suspension in 2014 after the Sharks’ supplements saga.

The former Dragons player was eligible to be a head coach last year and could now make his return with the joint venture. 

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Flanagan opened up on the suspensions he served during his time at Cronulla, and revealed his role in trying to stamp out the performance enhancing drugs situation. 

“It was a really dark day in rugby league, I’m not making any excuses for it … obviously we got a rogue person in the club and when I found out about it I got rid of him two weeks later,” he explained.

“Then two years later they came knocking on our door saying the players might have had something given to them by a trainer and I was as shocked as anyone. I was the head coach, back then I didn’t accept it, but what am I supposed to know? Players given supplements and stuff is not my area but if I’m their coach I need to take control of that.

“I was young, I was bullish and all I wanted to do was win and probably made some bad decisions, obviously I did.

“The whole thing in that period, a lot of people were suspended, there was football managers, there was trainers and all that sort of stuff and the club re-signed me for three years, the club had faith in what I was doing.

“I sat out six months in 2014 and 2015, we won every (junior) competition, SG Ball, Harold Matthews – we won every competition because during that period I set up a structure that I wanted to have in place and it reaped its rewards.

Gus denies talking Ryles out of Dragons job

“Obviously we won in 2016, went close in 2015 … I know I can coach, I know I can set a club up for long term success.”

Whoever does take over the Dragons will look to rescue the NRL club from a series of seasons without finals appearances, having not made the top eight since 2018.

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Phil Gould believes it’s not just the coaching role that the Dragons need to address. 

“There are other aspects of the Dragons to get out of where they are and back in to being consistently competitive and consistently successful,” he said on Nine’s 100% Footy.

“There’s a whole range of things that merged club need to address and it’s as simple as that, it’s not a coaching issue, a coach can’t solve all the issues they need to work on.”

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