{"id":143392,"date":"2025-09-14T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/143392\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T20:59:10","slug":"nrl-news-2025-the-moles-season-review-st-george-illawarra-dragons-fans-disenchanted-as-shane-flanagan-era-goes-backwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/143392\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2025: The Mole’s season review; St George Illawarra Dragons fans ‘disenchanted’ as Shane Flanagan era goes backwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

St George Illawarra<\/a> were a bitter disappointment in 2025, winning just eight games and only finishing ahead of wooden spoon combatants the Knights and Titans on the ladder.<\/p>\n

The club seems to be going around in circles, spiralling backwards after missing the finals by just two points the previous year in the start of the Shane Flanagan<\/a> era.<\/p>\n

Fans were disenchanted at some selections, particularly that of Flanagan’s son Kyle who played every game despite strong showings by Lachlan Ilias and Jonah Glover – who are both now set to leave the club – in NSW Cup.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Broncos pull off stunning comeback in 94-minute finals epic<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Boxing champion Ricky Hatton found dead at 46<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Shattered Aussie runner breaks down in tears in raw TV interview<\/a><\/p>\n

Flanagan partnered young gun Lyhkan King-Togia for the majority of the season.<\/p>\n

Top scorer Tyrell Sloan was made to continually fight for his spot in the side despite bagging 17 tries in 20 games and may also be on the move.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kyle Flanagan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The decision not to re-sign experienced prop Jack de Belin looks hard to understand and the Eels were quick to snap him up for next season.<\/p>\n

An inability to put away close games cost the Dragons dearly – 10 of their 16 losses were by 10 points or less.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fitness seemed to be an issue – the Dragons are among the bulkiest teams in the NRL and struggled to match the leaner teams over 80 minutes.<\/p>\n

But there were positives to come out of the year – veteran Clint Gutherson was a great signing from the Eels and led the team well from fullback, playing every game.<\/p>\n

There are whispers Gutho, who turned 30 during the year and is slowing up a little, will shift to lock in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Referee<\/p>\n

Clint Gutherson\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Another veteran, David Klemmer, gave real value, playing 22 games and showing the younger forwards the hard edge needed to play at this level.<\/p>\n

Damien Cook also gave good service in his return to the Dragons and his combination with the underrated Jacob Liddle gave the team a great one-two punch out of hooker.<\/p>\n

Youngsters such as Hamish Stewart, Loko Pasifiki Tonga, Jacob Halangahu, Dylan Egan, and Hayden Buchanan were all blooded during the season and will be better for the experience moving forward.<\/p>\n

Best player: King Gutho got a little cranky at times, but competed for every play and turned the clock back to his heyday in his first year at the club.<\/p>\n

Biggest disappointment: Luciano Leilua has the potential to be anything but played 23 games without scoring a try. Needs a solid summer in the gym.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Luciano Leilua\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Key signing: The Red V had no spark in the halves and Sharks recruit Daniel Atkinson should fix that. Fast and creative, he needs to be given the keys to the attack.<\/p>\n

2026 gains: Daniel Atkinson (Sharks), Josh Kerr (Dolphins)<\/p>\n

2026 losses: Jack de Belin (Eels), Sione Finau (Raiders), Jonah Glover (Rabbitohs), Mikaele Ravalawa (Castleford Tigers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra were a bitter disappointment in 2025, winning just eight games and only finishing ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-143392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}