{"id":377093,"date":"2024-03-17T19:49:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T20:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377093"},"modified":"2024-03-18T00:04:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T00:04:01","slug":"flanagan-floats-shake-up-after-dragons-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=377093","title":{"rendered":"Flanagan floats shake-up after Dragons nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\ufeffhane Flanagan<\/a> has hinted at potential changes to the St George Illawarra<\/a> line-up after the side produced a "disappointing" display against the Dolphins<\/a> in round two.<\/p>\n

One of the surprise packets of the opening round, the Dragons appeared to have turned a corner and given their long-suffering fans a glimmer of hope for the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Red V faithful, their optimism had dissipated by the end of Sunday night's encounter in Redcliffe, which saw the visitors blown off the park 38-0.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Dolphin cops 'absolutely brutal' all-time classic falcon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Roosters suffer big concern with star's head knock<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Tigers given deadline as iconic ground put on death row<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to media post-game, Flanagan was quizzed on whether he saw the performance coming after their first-up win against the Titans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Not that quickly and not in a week's time and not so drastic," the coach said.<\/p>\n

"Today's performance just wasn't good enough for a Dragons jersey \u2026 to be really clear, we're not happy about it. It was a complete opposite to last week – we had energy and commitment, but today we had none of that.<\/p>\n

"We weren't the better team at half-time, but I thought we hung in there and we could come back, but the second half went worse."<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra dished up \ufeff12 errors against the Dolphins, while also missing 29 tackles in an ill-disciplined display that set the team back to square one.<\/p>\n

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

Ben Hunt<\/a> admitted his side was off the ball from the opening minute and were never able to wrangle back the momentum.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Right from the jump, it just felt like we were on the back foot," he said.<\/p>\n

"They just ran harder than us and won the play-the-ball and they were too quick in the ruck … Jeremy Marshall-King gave us a bit of a bath, to be honest."<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The loss will see the Dragons coach face his toughest challenge since arriving at the club in the off-season, with calls already coming for a number of changes.<\/p>\n

Francis Molo is likely to be sidelined after being sin-binned for a high shot in the dying stages of the clash – but according to Flanagan, he might not be the only \ufeffplayer out.<\/p>\n

"It's a good question – at the moment, I probably think that was the best team we were putting on the paddock," he said.<\/p>\n

"Hame Sele should be back next week and he will probably come into the team, and our second grade played well. We'll have a look at it – that wasn't good enough tonight.<\/p>\n

"We might have to make some changes."<\/p>\n

Zac Lomax<\/a> was heavily involved once again for the Saints, finishing with a team-high 185 run metres, but his impact wasn't replicated by the big men as not a single forward from the side registered above 100 metres.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the wantaway star he has shown his ability to play on the wing across the first two rounds, centre remains Lomax's \ufeffbest spot and using an $800,000 player as a glorified battering ram is perhaps not the best use of his undeniable talent.<\/p>\n

Jack Bird's ability to cover a number of positions – potentially the bench utility role – could be one way for Lomax to move back into his preferred spot next weekend.<\/p>\n

In the NSW Cup fixture over the weekend, both Sione Finau and Christian Tuipolotu produced strong efforts out wide and could come onto the wing for Lomax, while back-rower Ryan Couchman crossed for a double as he pushes for an NRL call-up.<\/p>\n

The pressure will also likely begin to mount on the coach's son Kyle Flanagan, who struggled to land a blow against the Dolphins and made a number of costly errors.<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra will take on the Cowboys at home on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\ufeffhane Flanagan has hinted at potential changes to the St George Illawarra line-up after the side produced a "disappointing" display against the Dolphins in round […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":373876,"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\/377093"}],"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=377093"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377097,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377093\/revisions\/377097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/373876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=377093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=377093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=377093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}