{"id":381662,"date":"2024-04-04T00:35:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T00:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381662"},"modified":"2024-04-04T01:02:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T01:02:50","slug":"dead-sick-of-it-flanagan-fires-up-amid-lomax-grilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=381662","title":{"rendered":"'Dead sick of it': Flanagan fires up amid Lomax grilling"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\ufefft George Illawarra<\/a> coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> has fired up at accusations of double standards after the club agreed to release Zac Lomax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lomax had asked for permission to leave immediately, but the Dragons compromised and said he could quit his lucrative contract at the end of this current season.<\/p>\n

But the news this week was whacked by league legend Billy Slater<\/a>, who accused the Red V of being hypocritical after refusing to let Ben Hunt walk away<\/a> despite several requests last year.<\/p>\n

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Veteran halfback Hunt wanted to leave Wollongong and move home to southern Queensland to finish his career.<\/p>\n

New coach Flanagan eventually convinced him to stay put – a feat he failed to achieve with Lomax.<\/p>\n

\"Dragons<\/p>\n

When pressed on the two situations at a press conference on Thursday, the coach hit back.<\/p>\n

"We can't have people that don't want to be here, that's the main point," Flanagan began.<\/p>\n

"We've worked hard to turn (Lomax) around and it just hasn't happened so we've got to move forward.<\/p>\n

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

"Ben's got nothing to do with Zac Lomax – Ben wants to be here… Ben will see out his contract, and maybe go further.<\/p>\n

"So don't confuse the issue Ben and Zac, they are completely two different issues.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Flanagan also fired up at suggestions Lomax may yet be released mid-season if the Dragons are offered a suitable player swap.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

Exiled Storm giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona had been floated as an immediate direct trade<\/a>, while Andrew Johns suggests it could be done with young Eels playmaker Ethan Sanders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"There's no player swap going on. Zac's here for the rest of the year, I don't know where that came from," Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully this is the last time we speak about it, because this is not news… all the people I talk to are dead set sick of it, and so am I.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Lomax will see out his full $800,000 contract with the Dragons this year but will sacrifice the remaining $1.6 million on the deal he had signed with the club.<\/p>\n

He was disgruntled by a forced switch from centre to the wing by Flanagan this season.<\/p>\n

But the new coach says Lomax's desire to leave had festered long before Flanagan arrived at the club, and denied there was any personal issue between the pair.<\/p>\n

\"Joey<\/p>\n

"There will be stories going around that we've had arguments – there's been none of that," he said.<\/p>\n

"Zac has made a decision that he wants to leave the club, and the club has made the decision to let him go from his last two years.<\/p>\n

"There have been a lot of conversations behind closed doors and we will keep them that way.<\/p>\n

"It's not the first time this has happened and it's not going to be the last.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

The Dragons travel to Newcastle to face the Knights on Friday.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\ufefft George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan has fired up at accusations of double standards after the club agreed to release Zac Lomax. Lomax had asked […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":381664,"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\/381662"}],"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=381662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381667,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381662\/revisions\/381667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/381664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=381662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=381662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=381662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}