Staggering reality behind big statement… and rival\u2019s historic low<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe Dragons have now lost it\u2019s last eight games and even when you go through the timeline of Flanno getting his contract extension of August last year, they\u2019ve actually lost 12 of their last 14 games,\u201d Crawley said on NRL360.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading up to Flanno getting his contract extension, the Dragons lost four in a row before beating the Raiders and coincidentally, as luck would have it, he signed a deal that week. It was almost as if they were waiting for this opportunity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey won against Cronulla the next week but since they haven\u2019t won. Eight straight losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season earlier, they finished 15th and when they finished with those four losses, you would\u2019ve said, we\u2019re going to have to hold out until next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cSurely August wasn\u2019t the time (to re-sign him) after that run in leading into the Canberra game. It makes no sense at all. You talk about what has happened at Manly, well the Dragons bosses they need a wrap over the knuckles too.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading up to that re-signing, in no way in the world were they doing enough to give a coach a contract extension \u2026 I don\u2019t see how that club has taken a turn for the better since.\u201d<\/p>\n
NRL360 host Braith Anasta agreed with Crawley\u2019s assessment, wondering why the Dragons re-signed Flanagan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when it happened, I was like, why? They have no one knocking on the door for Shane Flanagan. They weren\u2019t playing out of their skin,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (Dragons) made the decision. They need to lie in their own you-know-what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Flanagan is under immense pressure after a 0-4 start.Source: Supplied<\/p>\n
St. George have had one of the worst winning strike rates in the NRL since Flanagan took over in 2024.<\/p>\n
Granted, he didn\u2019t inherit the most talented club on paper. While there are several green shoots evident, at the moment, there are growing pains. <\/p>\n
Crawley didn\u2019t want to turn to excuses though. He believes the Dragons had enough proof in front of them to hold off on tabling a deal when they did.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the club\u2019s statement at the time, believing it didn\u2019t ring true back then, nor does it now. <\/p>\n
\u201cShane has played a critical role in setting the foundation for where this club is heading,\u201d said Dragons CEO Tim Watsford,\u201d the club-issued statement read after Flanagan inked the extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s re-instilled belief in our playing group, coaches and supporters together with reiterating the privilege of wearing the Red V.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one in their right mind would agree with what was said last August,\u201d Crawley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat statement hasn\u2019t aged well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dragons\u2019 decision to give coach Shane Flanagan a two-year extension in August last year has been put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[2620,2095,70472,64,63,11241,11096,36261,2105,15897,36272,7681,81096,2623,282654,761,762,2627,2041,2067,158,11396,15666,4583,241558,85,282655,282653,29044,30516,2614],"class_list":["post-576220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-arch-rivals","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contract-extension","tag-daniel-nuttall","tag-dragons-coach","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-green-shoots","tag-growing-pains","tag-ian-hitchcock","tag-immense-pressure","tag-las-vegas","tag-losing-games","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nevada","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-nrl","tag-paul-crawley","tag-power-rankings","tag-shane-flanagan","tag-shock-call","tag-sports","tag-straight-losses","tag-talented-club","tag-tim-watsford","tag-two-year-extension","tag-united-states-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576220","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=576220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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