Rugby league continues to find ways to surprise us.

The Tigers and Knights sitting in the top four after five rounds. The Raiders down near the bottom. The Storm losing three straight. There is plenty to unpack.

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

But the biggest story of the week is the Dragons.

Shane Flanagan is under pressure. The big-money recruits are underperforming. So what is the real issue? And regardless of whether Flanagan is the coach moving forward, what actually needs to change?

Every year, a certain percentage of players in the NRL — let’s call it 30 per cent — come off contract. If you’re strategic, that needs to line up with your salary cap and your roster needs at key positions. The problem is, what you need does not always match what is available in the market.

The Dragons needed a halfback. Flanagan said as much in the off-season.

So they signed Daniel Atkinson for around $500,000 because he was what was available at the time. But that kind of signing does not necessarily strengthen your roster. It just fills a hole.

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportsmail. Sign up now!!!

Dragons defend Flanno after another loss | 02:14

Compare that to Newcastle signing Dylan Brown.

That deal was heavily scrutinised at the time. And now, with the benefit of recent good results, it would be easy to ask whether the Knights even needed him. Why not just play Sandon Smith at halfback and Fletcher Sharpe at five-eighth?

But fans should not forget it is a very long season, and a champion player like Brown will show his worth.

When the Knights signed him, they knew exactly what they were getting — an elite player, a proven performer and someone they believe will deliver for them for years to come.

The point is this: Newcastle were not just filling a hole. They were securing quality in a key position, and in doing so turning what had long been a weakness into an area of strength.

That is how smart recruitment changes a club.

You do not want to fill your squad with sixes and sevens out of 10. Which brings us back to the Dragons.

Their front row and back row were already areas of strength, especially with young talent like the Couchman brothers, Dylan Egan and Hamish Stewart. Now they have added Keaon Koloamatangi on a five-year deal reported to be worth around $5 million.

Was it overs? Probably.

But the Dragons know what they are getting.

They are bringing in an elite, professional forward who will lift standards and help the younger players around him. Rather than spreading their money thinly across multiple positions, they have doubled down on a strength and made it even stronger.

Honestly, that is what they should have done from the start.

MORE NRL NEWS

PREDICTED BLUES TEAM: Laurie’s gamble with TEN changes, $85k rise complete

PREDICTED QLD TEAM: Man to fill Walsh void as star returns amid seven changes

Panel divided over Dragons woes | 04:45

Instead, they tried to round out the squad with experienced veterans like Clint Gutherson, Valentine Holmes and Damien Cook.

They are all good players. Professional players. Champion players, in fact.

But you do not build a top roster by paying “good enough” money to players who are no longer elite game-breakers. Even Gutherson himself rated his own form as a seven out of 10 when his fullback spot was questioned last week.

That says it all.

Gutherson, Holmes and Cook have all had outstanding careers, but instead of spreading the wealth across the board to make the overall squad slightly better, the Dragons — and plenty of other clubs too — should be identifying one or two key positions and going hard there.

Because once you nail those key positions, that shapes how you develop the rest of your roster.

If you spread your cap too thin and pay players more than they are truly worth, you do not get the uplift you were hoping for. Instead, those players end up under even more pressure — from a leadership point of view, from a selection point of view, and from a performance point of view — simply because the money says they should be producing more than they realistically can.

Too many clubs fall into the trap of trying to fix everything in one off-season.

That is not how you build a contender.

You build a contender by signing the absolute best players available, especially in positions that matter most, and then filling in the rest around them.

And when you pay elite players elite money, their influence goes beyond the 80 minutes on game day.

They lift training standards. They sharpen habits. They make everyone around them want to be better.

Knights stun Raiders in Newcastle | 02:45

Look at Phoenix Crossland.

It might sound small, but of course he wants to impress Dylan Brown. He has seen him up close, not just now at Newcastle but in Kiwis camp too. Players want to impress the best players in the game. That matters. It changes standards.

In Dylan’s case, just having him in the building has already improved the attention to detail and professionalism across the entire Newcastle playing group.

Now, to be fair, Gutherson, Holmes and Cook would have brought some of that professionalism to the Dragons too. They have all represented at the highest level.

But right now, they are not performing.

And the Dragons’ style of play as a whole feels flat.

That is hard to say because it sounds like an easy swing at the coach. But sometimes the obvious answer is the right one.

Again, I go back to Newcastle.

I have seen first-hand the shift from Adam O’Brien to Justin Holbrook. There is more energy. More freedom. More excitement around moving the ball.

A lot of that comes down to the strengths of each coach.

Some coaches are strong leaders and motivators. Others are strong teachers. Some can read the game, understand the trends, and get their players to execute the structure. Others can read the same game and then find a different way to bring it to life.

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportsmail. Sign up now!!!

‘Diabolical’ Keary SLAMS Dragons | 03:01

At the moment, the Dragons look like a team that needs more of the latter.

They look flat. There is no real sense of excitement, innovation or instinct in the way they play. They are tough enough. They are experienced enough. But they have to change the way they attack.

That part falls on the coach.

Flanagan has two options from here.

He can double down on what he knows and back himself to grind his way out of it. Or he can evolve. He can lean into a style that encourages offloads, supports risk-taking and gives his players more freedom, even if it comes with more errors.

Whatever direction he chooses, one thing is clear:

What they are doing right now is not working.

What is happening at the Dragons? Alex McKinnon has dissected their roster issues.Source: FOX SPORTS

WHAT I’M LIKING MOST FROM THE NEW-LOOK KNIGHTS

Quickly back to Newcastle — what a start.

Four wins from five. I am not sure even the most optimistic Knights fans saw that coming, especially once Brown and Kalyn Ponga went down.

But it speaks to the immediate impact Justin Holbrook has had, and specifically the life he has injected into their attack.

What I like most is that the players being selected can pass, can move the ball, and more importantly, do it with confidence.

You have seen it multiple times this year where players are summing up situations on the run and executing instinctively.

Take the Bulldogs game a fortnight ago. Sandon Smith jumped into dummy-half, darted down the short side and played a quality pass to Jermaine McEwen, who then drew and passed to put Dom Young over in the corner.

Then on the weekend, after Savelio Tamale went to the bin, they still had the clarity to execute.

They opened the field up. They threw offloads. They understood exactly where the ball needed to go. They got Dane Gagai isolated one-on-one with Ethan Sanders and he ended up creating two tries.

There is a real freedom and lightness to the way they are playing, especially in the way they move the ball.

It has been refreshing to watch.

Matty dissects highs & lows of Knights | 02:53

THE CHALLENGE FOR RAIDERS… AND REALITY WITH ROOKIE HALFBACK

One of the other surprising developments this year has been Canberra’s decline.

Although in some ways, while it may surprise others, it does not surprise me as much.

Not enough has been made of the fact they lost Jamal Fogarty. On top of that, they are starting a rookie halfback.

That matters.

They also finished first last year, so every side that comes up against Canberra now is switched on. They know they are in for a serious contest.

The Raiders still have plenty of quality pieces. They just have not put it together yet.

But there is no need to panic.

Ricky Stuart seems to know that too. He has not made sweeping changes. He is backing what they are doing well and trusting that it will turn.

I saw an analogy the other day that sums up Canberra’s situation perfectly.

Every year, you have to push the boulder back to the top of the hill.

When things are rolling, there is rhythm in your style of play. There is confidence. A few wins stack up. The boulder starts rolling downhill and all of a sudden you feel unstoppable.

But every season, eventually, you have to push it back up again.

That is the hard part.

And I am not questioning Canberra’s work ethic. But right now, they are back in that phase where they have to do the heavy lifting again.

So, what does that look like?

Ricky’s blunt reaction to Raiders defeat | 04:25

For me, Ethan Strange needs to revisit the positions on the field where he was having the most success last year. And if I was Ethan Sanders, my job would be simple: get Strange the ball in those spots as often as possible.

Because once Strange starts getting more touches in the right areas, Canberra will start to find confidence again.

As for any suggestion that this could become a “gap year” while Sanders develops, I do not think Canberra would be viewing it that way at all.

This is a club with high standards. Their mindset is premiership or nothing.

Every year, different players emerge as the point of difference — the ones who surprise you, the ones who elevate the team.

Even Noah Martin is starting to show signs of doing that this year. Last season it was Kaeo Weekes and Ethan Strange who were lighting it up.

Those players can improve again, but the bigger job is making sure Sanders gets them into favourable field position and that the forward pack starts working in sync again.

Because Canberra have a lot of big personalities and a lot of competitors who naturally want to solve things themselves.

Right now, they need to solve it together.