{"id":314691,"date":"2023-07-08T22:11:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-08T22:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314691"},"modified":"2023-07-08T23:00:30","modified_gmt":"2023-07-08T23:00:30","slug":"flanagans-first-dragons-signing-target-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314691","title":{"rendered":"Flanagan's first Dragons signing target revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Incoming St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> could be closing in on his first player signings after revelations he held a secret meeting with Englishman Luke Thompson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs prop has had a wretched run with injuries since joining the club in 2020, playing only 38 games.<\/p>\n

Off contract at the end of the season, Thompson reportedly met with Flanagan on Friday afternoon, according to The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

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The Dragons are rumoured to have an interest in Titans stars David Fifita and Tino Fa'asuamaleaui – who are free agents due to Justin Holbrook's sacking – and the conversation with Thompson indicates the club's intent to recruit forwards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thompson is off contract at the Bulldogs, but the club could attempt to retain him, with the club's general manager Phil Gould confirming on 100% Footy\ufeff<\/em><\/a> that he was to sit down and talk with the prop about his future.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sidelined indefinitely with a foot injury, the 28-year-old could return for the Bulldogs this season, and will have a chance to impress coach Cameron Ciraldo if so.<\/p>\n

Flanagan also feels Thompson has some of his best football ahead of him, which is why they met.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs prop has previously praised the club \ufeffin an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, and could stick with the club that allowed him to visit his sick mother in England last year.<\/p>\n

\"Gus<\/p>\n

If Flanagan was able to sign Thompson, it could be his second recruit to the club, with former Dragons assistant Dean Young set to return as well.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Dragons are in a horrible run of form, however they almost pulled off an upset on Friday night when suffering a 36-26 defeat to the Raiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the Bulldogs managed to turn around a 66-0 loss to the Knights last weekend and hold on for a \ufeff36-32 win against the Rabbitohs<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Incoming St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan could be closing in on his first player signings after revelations he held a secret meeting with […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314696,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314691\/revisions\/314696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}