Raiders\u2019 bid to lock up imports, weighs up gun\u2019s release to join Dragons<\/a><\/p>\nIlias is represented by NRL360 host Braith Anasta.<\/p>\n
Anasta said he was \u201cput on the spot\u201d on NRL360 by a question from The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Dean Ritchie, who asked Anasta how Ilias was going \u201cemotionally and form wise\u201d,<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a tough one. That\u2019s a tough one to ask,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t win here \u2026 Shane and the Dragons will think I\u2019m having a crack \u2013 but if you want my honest opinion, he\u2019s gone back and did everything he\u2019s asked of. They\u2019ve won 10 out of 11 games. And then pretty much because they lost one on the weekend, that\u2019s why he\u2019s not playing this week? I don\u2019t cop that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve sat pretty quiet here. I don\u2019t want to get involved. It\u2019s hard for me. But he couldn\u2019t do any more.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately for him, I\u2019m trying to keep him up because he\u2019s losing hope. I\u2019m sure the other kid there, (Jonah) Glover is as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I shouldn\u2019t say this, but I had to \u2013 because that\u2019s how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lachlan Ilias is in terrific form but hasn\u2019t been able to crack first grade since Round 8.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Dragons officially announced the hiring of former NRL coach Daniel Anderson to be the club\u2019s Head of Recruitment.<\/p>\n
One of Anderson\u2019s biggest tasks this off-season will be to search for the club\u2019s next marquee halfback. <\/p>\n
Rather blunty, Dragons CEO Tim Watsford has publicly said that Flanagan won\u2019t be the club\u2019s halfback next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle was brought in as a 14 or utility to play a role,\u201d Watsford said earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, we had two halves in Benny Hunt and Junior Amone. That was where the club was heading.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of last year, we signed Daniel Atkinson from the Sharks and he will come in and play half in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle is there fulfilling a role for 2025 and fulfilling it well. Now, we\u2019re in the market and we\u2019ll be in the market for a marquee halfback.<\/p>\n
However, Crawley believes that Flanagan\u2019s continued insistence on selecting his son at halfback is \u201cdoing the club damage\u201d as the veteran journalist opined that it could be sending potential free agent targets a poor message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another layer to that too \u2013 another layer to the story in the fact the Dragons senior management has come out in recent weeks and said they\u2019re chasing a top line number 7,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, you\u2019d have to question of the young guys coming through would you want to send a young 7 to the Dragons knowing that there\u2019s every chance Kyle stays at 7? They\u2019ve shown no trust in the bloke they bought last year to play 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s doing the club damage \u2013 they might not want to admit it, but it\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Debate has reignited over whether Dragons half Kyle Flanagan deserves his place in first grade with the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,29040,18194,29042,17343,29045,4437,28814,15906,763,25845,29043,4744,29039,761,762,158,11396,29041,4583,85,29044,29046],"class_list":{"0":"post-30884","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-backup-halves","11":"tag-braith-anasta","12":"tag-club-damage","13":"tag-daily-telegraph","14":"tag-daniel-anderson","15":"tag-daniel-atkinson","16":"tag-dean-ritchie","17":"tag-disappointing-season","18":"tag-fox-league","19":"tag-game-management","20":"tag-jonah-glover","21":"tag-kicking-game","22":"tag-marquee-halfback","23":"tag-national-rugby-league","24":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","25":"tag-nrl","26":"tag-paul-crawley","27":"tag-senior-management","28":"tag-shane-flanagan","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-tim-watsford","31":"tag-top-line-number"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30884","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=30884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}