{"id":373874,"date":"2024-03-07T21:57:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T22:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=373874"},"modified":"2024-03-08T01:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T01:05:31","slug":"joeys-warning-as-rumours-circle-800k-dragons-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=373874","title":{"rendered":"Joey's warning as 'rumours' circle $800k Dragons gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

League legend Andrew Johns<\/a> has cautioned new Dragons<\/a> coach \ufeffShane Flanagan<\/a> against shifting $800,000 star Zac Lomax<\/a> to the wing.<\/p>\n

Lomax has been selected on the flank for Saturday's season-opening clash with Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

While the 24-year-old has been a centre by trade throughout his NRL<\/a> career, and had designs on moving into a playmaking position, either at fullback or five-eighth, \ufeffFlanagan has opted to go the other way.<\/p>\n

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Reports on Thursday claimed the switch has left Lomax disgruntled \ufeffand potentially on the verge of requesting a release.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

While Johns can't speak to Lomax's mindset, the eighth Immortal believes Lomax is still best suited to playing centre.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThe Lomax one surprises me, because at right centre he's generally the one who can pull something out," Johns told Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"Modern day wingers are just like front-rowers, they're just coming out of trouble (running the ball from kick returns), running from dummy-half or trying to get the sets rolling forward.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"Lot of rumours and talk that he's not happy on the wing. Last year there was talk he was going to play five-eighth, so going from five-eighth to the wing… it would be difficult. I imagine Zac wants to play centre or fullback.<\/p>\n

"It's hard to make strong judgement unless you're inside and know what's going on inside the club.<\/p>\n

"Shane Flanagan is an experienced coach, so there must be some reason why he's doing it. But, personally, I'd be having Zac at right centre.<\/p>\n

"Jack Bird is there, but he's had a horrendous run of injuries with his knees. I see Jack more as a backrower these days.<\/p>\n

"From the outside looking in I'd have Zac in the centres and Jack Bird in the backrow."<\/p>\n

The Dragons narrowly avoided the wooden spoon last year and sacked coach Anthony Griffin amid a horror campaign.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Flanagan – who led Cronulla to a premiership in 2016 – has already said it will take some time to rebuild the team into a finals contender.<\/p>\n

Johns believes they may need a marquee signing to help them.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think they are rebuilding, everyone can see they're rebuilding," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"Newcastle was in this position for so long, and it wasn't until they landed Kalyn (Ponga)… that it all started to change.<\/p>\n

"But to get that world-class player they're going to have to pay overs. They've got to build from within, they've got that strong junior nursery down there on the south coast.\ufeff"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

League legend Andrew Johns has cautioned new Dragons coach \ufeffShane Flanagan against shifting $800,000 star Zac Lomax to the wing. Lomax has been selected on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339676,"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\/373874"}],"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=373874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373878,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373874\/revisions\/373878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/339676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}