{"id":586336,"date":"2026-04-05T04:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586336\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:08:10","slug":"kevin-walters-unloads-on-dragons-players-to-take-some-ownership-st-george-illawarra-dragons-record-shane-flanagan-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586336\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters unloads on Dragons players to take some ownership, St George Illawarra Dragons record, Shane Flanagan, nrl news"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Walters has urged the Dragons players to stand up and take some \u201cbloody ownership\u201d after they slumped to a 0-5 record for the first time in club history after an abysmal performance on Saturday against the Cowboys.<\/p>\n<p>After succumbing to a 32-0 defeat in their worst showing of the 2026 season, Walters didn\u2019t mince his words as he questioned the side\u2019s effort and commitment as pressure continues to heat up on head coach Shane Flanagan.<\/p>\n<p>Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? <a href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/en-AU\/welcome\/nrl?pg=default&amp;extcamp=fsaeditoriallinkleague-edt-fsp-lnk-awr-grc-nrl-kyo&amp;channel=fsa&amp;campaign=fsacontra&amp;voucher=\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a> &gt;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WHAT&#8217;S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n<p>Taking the Canterbury Bulldogs to extra time in Las Vegas, they have since failed to fire in key moments and lacked confidence on both sides of the field in attack and defence.<\/p>\n<p>Stating that Flanagan should not be sacked as coach, Walters emphasised that it was time for the players to stand up and start delivering positive performances. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are two things that really stand out to me,\u201d former Brisbane Broncos and current Australian Kangaroos coach Kevin Walters said on Fox League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re lacking confidence. That\u2019s not the same team that played in Vegas. It\u2019s the same jersey, same players, but because they\u2019ve lost three, four, five games in a row now their confidence is right down low, and confidence comes from two areas. <\/p>\n<p>Dragons hit record low as Cowboys star | 01:04<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne area is winning and the other area is from training well. If you train well and consistently train at high standards, it propels you to give you confidence going into the games. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow I\u2019m not at trainings so I don\u2019t know their training habits but you just see their on the slippery dip and the only way I see is not sack the coach. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c(But for the) players (to) take some ownership of your performances, take some bloody ownership and don\u2019t throw that stupid pass. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet up and play the ball properly. Get on-side, kick (and) chase. All those hard things in the games, the effort areas. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey need to pick that up as well and show your coach that you bloody care. That\u2019s what they need to do. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoes that sound fair? That team is much better than a 32-0 score reflects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I Understand&#8217;: Shane responds to Booing | 05:03<\/p>\n<p>This comes after veteran fullback Clint Gutherson admitted after the match against the Cowboys that the players are letting down Flanagan with their performances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re letting him down,\u201d Gutherson told <a href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/rugby-league\/st-george-captain-clint-gutherson-says-players-are-letting-coach-shane-flanagan-down-c-22096486\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">AAP<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe does tireless work, Shane. He leaves no stone unturned. Him and Mick and Deano. We\u2019re just not doing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had every chance to do it in the first four weeks and we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then (Saturday night) we just didn\u2019t get a chance to play the footy we wanted to and you can\u2019t do that in the NRL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Walters has urged the Dragons players to stand up and take some \u201cbloody ownership\u201d after they slumped&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-586336","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\/586336","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=586336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}