{"id":510458,"date":"2026-02-28T21:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510458\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T21:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:21:13","slug":"nrl-coach-shane-flanagan-doubles-down-on-claims-his-st-george-illawarra-cant-win-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510458\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL coach Shane Flanagan doubles down on claims his St George Illawarra can\u2019t win premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Flanagan has admitted it would be a \u201cstupid expectation\u201d to claim St George Illawarra<\/a> can win the premiership, admitting 2026 is a building year.<\/p>\n

The Dragons will kick off their season against heavyweights Canterbury in Las Vegas, as the marquee fixture of the Allegiant Stadium event.<\/p>\n

Now in his third year at the helm of the Dragons, Flanagan has the core of a good young rising pack which will be bolstered by Keaon Koloamatangi next year.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

But there are questions over their points-scoring ability, with halfback Dan Atkinson having never worn No.7 in the NRL before and Kyle Flanagan alongside him.<\/p>\n

Flanagan caught attention earlier this week when he conceded the Dragons \u201caren\u2019t winning the comp this year\u201d, a point he stood by on Friday in Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to say we are good enough with the big dog stuff to go at a premiership this year,\u201d the Dragons coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will win a lot of footy games this year, but I am just realistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t set stupid expectations. Maybe if I said \u2018we are going to win the comp\u2019, that might have got a bit more attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had a lot of new staff come in, some new players coming in, Keaon coming in next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to think we are going to get two or three more signings, big ones for next year. We are building towards that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is realistic, according to Flanagan, is a finals finish.<\/p>\n

The Dragons have not made the top-eight since 2018, with only Wests Tigers having had a longer finals drought than the Red V.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery side will be saying finals, without a doubt,\u201d Flanagan said,<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is where I am at as well. Where you finish in those final series depends how good your season is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flanagan, though, does believe Atkinson is ready to shoulder the responsibility of the No.7 jersey after limited game-time as a utility at Cronulla last year.<\/p>\n

The Dragons have made changes to their attack under new assistant Michael Ennis, wanting to play more direct and have their halves roam on both sides of the field.<\/p>\n

Atkinson\u2019s last outing at halfback came way back in 2022 while playing Queensland Cup for Sunshine Coast, but the 25-year-old has insisted this week he is not fazed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely ready from a physical and mental perspective. He\u2019s a lovely young boy and he\u2019s trained well over the pre-season,\u201d Shane Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got all the attributes to be a halfback in the NRL.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take time but with Daniel, he hasn\u2019t played halfback for an NRL team for three, four years, maybe longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he\u2019s going to grow into that position and we expect him to do two or three things really well and build his game week to week over the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Flanagan has admitted it would be a \u201cstupid expectation\u201d to claim St George Illawarra can win the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,1625,44,158,3863,588,4563,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-510458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-lifestyle","tag-news","tag-nrl","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-st-george-illawarra-dragons","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510458","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=510458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}