{"id":589979,"date":"2026-04-06T22:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589979\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:29:10","slug":"flanagan-set-for-shock-early-return-as-dragons-changes-take-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/589979\/","title":{"rendered":"Flanagan set for shock early return as Dragons changes take shape"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under fire St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> head coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> is set to recall son Kyle straight into the number seven for this Friday’s clash with the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flanagan junior suffered a sickening head knock on the Gold Coast just over a week ago, and will be only just past the mandatory 11-day stand-down period when Friday night’s clash rolls around.<\/p>\n

But Flanagan, who was originally expected to miss more than the minimum 11 days, has apparently recovered well ahead of schedule after a hospital visit immediately following the head knock and will now be tasked with turning the Dragons’ season around.<\/p>\n

News Corp have revealed the coach has run out of patience with Daniel Atkinson<\/a> after the Dragons produced an insipid attacking display, failing to register a shot against the North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> at Kogarah on Saturday, despite the fact the Townsville-based club were letting in 28 points per game prior to facing the Red V.<\/p>\n

The loss saw the Dragons slump to a zero and four start, with calls for the coach to be sacked growing after the playing group were booed from the field by the home fans.<\/p>\n

Flanagan, who struggled at halfback last year, will need to find his feet very quickly, with Daniel Atkinson<\/a> likely to be shuffled to five-eighth for the game.<\/p>\n

It’ll mean Lyhkan King-Togia<\/a> misses out, and Kade Reed<\/a> continues to hone his craft in the NSW Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dragons are also going to be without Clint Gutherson<\/a> for a period of around three weeks after he injured his hamstring in the closing stages of the game against the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

It’s likely that Tyrell Sloan<\/a>, who has struggled to get game time under Flanagan, will start at the back, looking to add speed to a very slow Dragons’ backline.<\/p>\n

Sloan, who struggles under the high ball and in defence at time, is an excellent attacker and will provide the Dragons a point of difference compared to what they have dished up so far this year.<\/p>\n

Other changes could be likely, with rookie winger David Fale<\/a> facing a suspension, and calls for more minutes and opportunities for the likes of Loko Pasifiki Tonga<\/a> and Jacob Halangahu<\/a> in the forwards, while Jacob Liddle<\/a> has also only played roughly 20 minutes in each of his games from the bench so far.<\/p>\n

St George Illawarra will kick-off at 6pm (AEST) on Friday against the Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> who themselves have had a tumultuous start to the year, with Anthony Seibold<\/a> sacked before they registered their first win last weekend, scoring 52 points in Redcliffe against the Dolphins<\/a> under interim coach Kieran Foran<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under fire St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan is set to recall son Kyle straight into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-589979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589979","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=589979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}