{"id":377536,"date":"2025-12-29T05:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T05:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377536\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T05:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T05:34:12","slug":"guthersons-future-at-fullback-revealed-as-flanagan-praises-veteran-trio-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377536\/","title":{"rendered":"Gutherson\u2019s future at fullback revealed as Flanagan praises veteran trio – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> has made a number of great recruitment decisions in his short time with the club, with the acquisition of veteran trio Clint Gutherson<\/a>, Damien Cook<\/a>, and Valentine Holmes<\/a> sitting atop the list.<\/p>\n

Gutherson in particular has proven to be a terrific get for the Dragons, receiving the club’s Player of the Year award in his first season with the club.<\/p>\n

His age, however, has been a topic of discussion heading into 2026, with many fans expecting the 31-year-old fullback to transition into a less demanding role as he heads into the backend of his career.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Zero Tackle, Flanagan discussed Gutherson’s role moving forward, shutting down speculation that he could transition out of the No. 1 jumper.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s definitely not slowing up at the moment, he’s winning everything,\u201d Flanagan said of the Dragons skipper.<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 29: Clint Gutherson of the Dragons celebrates victory during the round four NRL match between St George Illawarra Dragons and Melbourne Storm at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, on March 29, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we have to plan for everything, and that’ll come pretty quickly for \u2018Gutho’, but at the moment we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that he has a healthy year because he’s as fit as he’s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanagan admitted Gutherson’s current athleticism and fitness far exceeds his age, and is expecting big things from him next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you didn’t know his age and watched his training, you wouldn’t know that he’s one of the older players, that’s for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Flanagan went on to praise the other veterans of the trio, admitting all three have made a positive impact on the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had eight young ones make their debuts last year, and to be able to have some experienced players like \u2018Gutho’, \u2018Cookie’, and \u2018Val’ around them \u2014 you can’t measure it,\u201d he said of his stars.<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 25: Damien\u00a0Cook of the Dragons looks on after the round eight NRL match between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra Dragons at Allianz Stadium on April 25, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been really good on and off the field, all those young boys needed someone with steady hands and some experience, someone they can talk to and watch train.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose three boys definitely did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all three stars expected to play major roles in the Dragons’ 2026 campaign, Flanagan will be hoping that their veteran leadership can help elevate their squad to the next level when they need it most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan has made a number of great recruitment decisions in his short…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-377536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377536","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=377536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}