{"id":589054,"date":"2026-04-06T12:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T12:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589054\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T12:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T12:05:10","slug":"shane-flanagan-backed-to-keep-dragons-head-coaching-job-accountability-over-playing-group-damien-cook-clint-gutherson-nrl-360-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589054\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Flanagan backed to keep Dragons head coaching job, accountability over playing group, Damien Cook, Clint Gutherson, NRL 360, nrl news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite sitting winless with a 0-5 record to begin the 2026 season, veteran Daily Telegraph journalist Dean Ritchie has urged the St George Illawarra Dragons to remain patient and stick with head coach Shane Flanagan.<\/p>\n

This comes as the pressure has intensified on Flanagan and his coaching future with mounting scrutiny following the club\u2019s worst start to a season since the merger between the Illawarra Steelers and the St George Dragons.<\/p>\n

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Although he admitted that Flanagan looks like a \u201cbeaten man\u201d and \u201cbroken\u201d, Ritchie believes that the answers don\u2019t lie with another coaching overhaul, which would follow in the steps of Manly Sea Eagles\u2019 termination of Anthony Seibold, a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cShane Flanagan in that press conference, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen a bloke look more broken than Shane Flanagan. He had no answers,\u201d Ritchie said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked like he was about to burst into tears to be honest with you but I\u2019ve spoken to Flanno and he says he\u2019s not a beaten man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shane Flanagan is in trouble.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

Panel argue over controversial calls | 04:49<\/p>\n

Instead, he took aim at everyone other than the man who led the Cronulla Sharks to the premiership in 2016 including the administration and, in particular, the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s ready to be sacked just yet. I think we have to look at this rationally and take blame across the board – the players, the administration, the coaching staff, everybody,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, you look at those players. They have been incredibly poor.<\/p>\n

\u201cGutho looks gassed. Val Hplmes has done nothing. Jadyn Su\u2019A has done nothing. Damien Cook has been average at best, so the senior players need to take a key responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

This caught the attention of co-host Braith Anasta, who weighed in and suggested that it was Flanagan who recruited much of the current roster, arguing that he must also take responsibility for the squad\u2019s makeup and the position they have found themselves in.<\/p>\n

Braith Anasta injected into the debate, \u201cSo who signed them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Benji breaks down Golden Point win | 07:22<\/p>\n

\u201cShane Flanagan signed them,\u201d Ritchie hit back.<\/p>\n

Anasta continued, \u201cSo the leaders have got to stand up, but who signed those leaders?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Code Sports\u2019 Brent Read agreed with Anasta, stating that it is the coach\u2019s responsibility to get the best out of the players and although the blame should be shared it is hard to get rid of an entire playing group than one individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also the coaches responsibility to get the best out of the players and its easy to point the fingers at the players but we all know how this works,\u201d Read added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t clean out a locker room but you can clean out a coaches box.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite sitting winless with a 0-5 record to begin the 2026 season, veteran Daily Telegraph journalist Dean Ritchie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-589054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589054","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=589054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}