BESIEGED Knights coach Adam O'Brien wants to reject a move by the club to bring in premiership-winning coach Shane Flanagan to get his team back on course.<\/p>\n
Flanagan – who steered the Sharks to their maiden title – would seem a good fit for the struggling Knights – but O'Brien doesn't want him on board.<\/p>\n
Knights boss Phil Gardner is keen to bring in Flanagan, a coach with a long history of success at the top level, to give the players a new voice.<\/p>\n
But O'Brien has told management he is happy with his coaching set-up and doesn't feel the need to bring in any new staff at this stage.<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see whether Gardner bows to O'Brien's wishes or goes ahead and hires Flanagan anyway.<\/p>\n
Flanagan, who is still barred from holding a head coach role by the NRL, was an assistant at the Dragons last year and is currently working in the media.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THE Bulldogs are poised to launch yet another raid on the Panthers, targetting talented hooker Mitch Kenny for next season.<\/p>\n
Former Panthers assistant coach Trent Barrett has already lured Jack Hetherington, Matt Burton and Brent Naden to Belmore and has now set his sights on Kenny.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs are desperate for a classy hooker for next season and Kenny fits the bill perfectly, being stuck behind star number nine Api Koroisau at the Panthers.<\/p>\n
With Koroisau and seven team-mates on Origin duty or suspended last weekend, Kenny was one of the best players in the depleted Penrith side as they fell to Wests Tigers at Leichhardt.<\/p>\n
At 23, Kenny is a Panthers local junior who has served his apprenticeship and is now ready to be a regular top grade hooker.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs' first choice was Storm star Brandon Smith but he is under contract to the premiers for another 12 months.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ONE coach who has no trouble with a new face is the Tigers' Michael Maguire, who will welcome highly-respected veteran Tim Sheens onto his staff with open arms.<\/p>\n
The pair go way back – Sheens handed Maguire his top-grade debut as a player way back in 1992 and the pair have always been close.<\/p>\n
Sheens won't be a threat to Maguire – his role will be mainly in pathways and development.<\/p>\n
The former Kangaroos coach has been working in England for several years but will forever remain a part of Tigers folklore, having delivered the club its lone premiership in such rousing style in 2005.<\/p>\n
Sheens won't be back for nearly a month however – he has committed to coaching the 'Exiles' team that plays England in a one-off international in three weeks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
THE Tigers are still somewhat interested in signing out-of-favour Bulldogs utility back Dallin Watene-Zelezniak to boost their backline stocks.<\/p>\n
The Dogs are prepared to pay a large slice of DWZ's hefty salary to sweeten the pot and a player exchange is also a possibility.<\/p>\n
And who is the player being mooted in the swap? The temperamental Joey Leilua, who has been in and out of the Tigers side but can be a dangerous attacking weapon on his day.<\/p>\n
Watch this space.<\/p>\n
<\/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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" O'BRIEN REJECTS KNIGHTS' FLANAGAN SOS BESIEGED Knights coach Adam O'Brien wants to reject a move by the club to bring in premiership-winning coach Shane Flanagan […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/82071"}],"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=82071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82073,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82071\/revisions\/82073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}