{"id":504481,"date":"2026-02-26T03:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504481\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T03:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:53:10","slug":"i-worry-about-kyle-flanagans-heartfelt-assessment-of-sons-critics-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504481\/","title":{"rendered":"“I worry about Kyle”: Flanagan’s heartfelt assessment of son’s critics – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no denying it, rugby league fans can be quite brutal at times, arguably, the most brutal fans in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the sport as prominent as ever on social media, discussion has increased, with fans more commonly voicing their opinions.<\/p>\n

But with fans more active on socials, so too are players, who are constantly digesting the comments, both good and bad.<\/p>\n

One player who faced a lot of negativity last season was Kyle Flanagan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Playing at halfback for a team that finished 15th, he received almost all of the criticism, with fans annoyed at his inability to manage games or lead the team’s attack.<\/p>\n

But his coach, and dad, Shane Flanagan<\/a>, feels the criticism is completely unwarranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I know with Kyle is he’s busted his arse off every day. He was one of our four or five best players last year and Dean Young<\/a> will tell me when he’s not playing well,\u201d Flanagan told Matty Johns in an unaired Fox Sports interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy assistant coaches this year, Mick Ennis and Dean (Young), we’ll put the best team on the paddock and if Kyle’s not one of them?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he won’t play, but I can guarantee you he’ll be hard to get out of there because he’s going to work hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely prefer him playing in my team. When he was at the Roosters, we had a really good one year there. They won the World Cup Challenge, he was with Keary and had a good year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the year he had at the Bulldogs wasn’t that great and I used to worry a lot about him there, but I’ve sort of got control of him now\u2026. but it’s tough, especially when there’s probably a fair bit of undeserved criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NRLWOLLONGONG, AUSTRALIA – MAY 10: Kyle Flanagan of the Dragons runs the ball during the round 10 NRL match between St George Illawarra Dragons and New Zealand Warriors at WIN Stadium on May 10, 2025 in Wollongong, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Flanagan’s main concern though, is the rest of his family, conceding his wife and daughter don’t take the criticism well.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot real good because she (Kyle’s mum) sees how much he (Kyle) tries and how hard he works. But she’s been around for a fair long time as well so she’ll get on with it.\u201d Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not worried about me. I worry about Kyle, he’s got a wife, a child, a young baby and I worry about his sisters and his mum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey see things and read things. That’s what hurts me. I know that hurts Kyle as well. It doesn’t worry me, I can get on with it. I’ve been in this business for a while.<\/p>\n

Kyle will line up for the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> at five-eighth for their season opener this Sunday in Las Vegas at 3:30 PM AEDT.<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no denying it, rugby league fans can be quite brutal at times, arguably, the most brutal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-504481","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\/504481","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=504481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}