{"id":499064,"date":"2026-04-15T03:21:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=499064"},"modified":"2026-04-15T05:23:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T05:23:36","slug":"flanagans-fight-to-save-job-derailed-by-destructive-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=499064","title":{"rendered":"Flanagan's fight to save job derailed by destructive claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

There's a recurring narrative surrounding St George Illawarra<\/a> coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> and it's so destructive that it could make his job untenable, if it isn't already.<\/p>\n

As the under-fire Dragons boss fights to save his position, his coaching methods have been called into question this week and it's not for the first time.<\/p>\n

With the side languished on the bottom of the ladder, young prop Loko Pasifiki Tonga is pushing for a way out of the club<\/a>, despite being signed until the end of 2027. It has thrown fresh fuel on a fire that was already burning out of control.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Nobody wanted him': Poetic NRL return 1420 days in the making<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maroons bolter emerges as Slater mulls over big selection<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Dragons rejected as several clubs race to sign star No.1<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old is one of the most highly-touted young forwards in the game, having dominated age-group football and representing NSW U19s and Australian Schoolboys.<\/p>\n

\ufeffPasifiki Tonga played 10 first grade games last season under Flanagan, but is yet to get on the field this year in the top grade for St George Illawarra.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, Pasifiki Tonga was at his powerful best in NSW Cup, running for more than 250 metres and scoring a try as the Dragons smashed the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

But when the NRL team list was named on Tuesday afternoon, his name was again quite far down the pecking order and out of the 19-man side.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Hours later, dual international turned player agent Mat Rogers – who has Pasifiki Tonga signed to his stable, although he doesn't directly manage the Dragons tearaway – \ufeffmade some damning claims about why the 196cm front-rower wants out of the club.<\/p>\n

"They've obviously got an opinion of him that, he's not up to scratch. He doesn't feel like he's being developed and I guess we agree," Rogers said on SEN.<\/p>\n

"He doesn't know what to do. That's the problem. There's a very frustrated young man there who's busting his butt and he's playing the house down.<\/p>\n

"He thinks he deserves an opportunity. It's not sour grapes, but he just feels like he's not being told what to do."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> has since published the back-and-forth between Pasifiki Tonga's manager Craig Clifton and the club's chief operating officer Ben Creagh.<\/p>\n

Clifton described \ufeffthe situation as "untenable" and said his client had become 'confused and demoralised' due to being left out of the NRL – especially when Flanagan publicly stated after the Dragons' round six loss that he lacked options to bring into the team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"If I had someone that was better out of the side, I would put them in, trust me," he said.<\/p>\n

Wide World of Sports contacted St George Illawarra for comment on the situation.<\/p>\n

The club rejects claims made by Pasifiki Tonga's camp and are adamant he knows what he needs to do in order to return to the NRL, while shutting down a potential release.<\/p>\n

It comes just days after the Dragons confirmed star back-rower Jaydn Su'A would be leaving at the end of this season<\/a>, despite being one of the side's best players.<\/p>\n

Su'A had an option in his favour for 2027 but is expected to join Parramatta.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Jaydn<\/p>\n

The comments from both Rogers and Clifton however echo similar sentiments from Lachlan Ilias<\/a>, who joined the Red V last year but was dropped early in the season and never returned, despite helping steer the NSW Cup team towards a grand final berth.<\/p>\n

Ilias claimed he barely received feedback from Flanagan once he was axed.<\/p>\n

"I don't think I was given a fair opportunity to get back into the team after I was dropped," the now-Titans playmaker told the Unscripted<\/em> podcast last November. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"The only dialogue that I got after I got dropped was after we won 10 or 11 games in a row for Cup and then we played terrible against Newtown \u2026 it just wasn't our day and that was the only time I got feedback about my game, saying that I played poorly.<\/p>\n

"I was doing everything I could, I don't know if I could have done any more to get back into the team. It was a different time, because the boys in NRL weren't playing great but we were playing well, so the vibe was high in the Cup team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We were building these connections in Cup, putting our best foot forward \u2026 I don't think myself or other boys in the Cup team were given a fair opportunity to get back into NRL.<\/p>\n

"I'm not trying to talk shit about anything else, but I just think there were a few things that went wrong and I feel like the best team wasn't picked week-in and week-out.<\/p>\n

"[I am] a little bit bitter that I didn't get a fair crack. I don't think I had a fair opportunity to get back into the side. I did everything to put myself back into the team."<\/p>\n

In fairness to Flanagan, there are some \ufeffyounger players who have improved under his coaching at the Dragons – most notably the Couchman twins and Hamish Stewart – while the team more than competed in a lot of games throughout 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

But as a further counterpoint, it's not just the current players Flanagan has coached that have raised queries about or had issues with him.<\/p>\n

Ben Hunt forced his way out of St George Illawarra after just one year under Flanagan<\/a>, with the issue between the pair coming to the surface again recently when the coach name-dropped the Broncos veteran in a press conference as part of the reason why the club's squad wasn't at the level it needed to be to compete for finals.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

\ufeff"If you look back 12 or 18 months ago, our marquee halfback [Ben Hunt] walked out on the club," Flanagan told media last week.<\/p>\n

"When your halfback walks out with no future plan, it's hard to all of a sudden say 'he's gone, what's next' and most clubs will have a three or four-year plan."<\/p>\n

Hunt responded in the SMH<\/a>, saying: "I thought I was too old and had bad habits."<\/p>\n

James Maloney<\/a>, who starred in Cronulla's 2016 grand final victory with Flanagan at the helm, told a room full of people last year<\/a> the coach had significant shortcomings.<\/p>\n

"I didn't learn a thing off him," Maloney said, as reported at the time by The Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

WWOS reached out to Maloney regarding the comments made last year at the Magic Round function, but he opted not to speak about Flanagan's current situation.<\/p>\n

While the brutal comments \ufefffrom Maloney last year and the passive-aggressive reaction from Hunt aren't a great reflection, Flanagan does have a good relationship with plenty of ex-players from his time at the Sharks, most notably former captain Paul Gallen.<\/p>\n

The pair remain good mates, but Gallen declined to comment when contacted by WWOS about the current situation at the Dragons and pressure on the coach. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Flanagan is proven at NRL level and has a title to his name \ufeff- more than a lot of current coaches can say – but time is running out for him to turn it around at the Dragons and the narrative surrounding his coaching methods and ability won't help matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There's a recurring narrative surrounding St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan and it's so destructive that it could make his job untenable, if it isn't […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":489884,"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\/499064"}],"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=499064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499070,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499064\/revisions\/499070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/489884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}