{"id":598604,"date":"2026-04-10T20:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598604\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:35:28","slug":"dragons-coach-shane-flanagan-defiant-after-10th-straight-loss-vs-sea-eagles-round-six-result-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/598604\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragons coach Shane Flanagan defiant after 10th-straight loss vs Sea Eagles, round six result, press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Flanagan<\/a> stood on the sidelines on Friday night, riding the wave of every play as major question marks remain over his future at the Dragons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The under-fire coach ditched the usual safety of the coach’s box at WIN Stadium and took a front-row seat alongside general manager of football Ben Haran as his side suffered a 10th-straight loss dating back to last season, this time against a resurgent Sea Eagles outfit reaping the rewards of a coaching change with Kieran Foran at the helm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flanagan’s men were blown off the park and trailed 16-0 after less than a quarter of the match, but rallied back to take an 18-16 lead early in the second half.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Oh my goodness’: Broncos captain binned for brutal tackle<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Kennedy creates history in sub-10 stunner on Aussie soil<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dragons left red-faced after 95-metre Manly stunner<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dragons players walk off the field. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But as has been the case too many times to count, the Dragons blew a second-half lead and ended up falling 28-18 against Manly in front of their frustrated home fans.<\/p>\n

The hosts had their fair share of opportunities to extend a lead or fight back late in the contest, but the lack of execution and polish was again a clear issue.<\/p>\n

“It was definitely an improvement,” Flanagan said in his post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

“We competed really hard and if a few things would have gone our way, we scrape home for a win. There was an opportunity for us to score a try just before half time and we fumbled it. There was an opportunity Luch [Luciano Leilua] kicked the ball – if it sits up we score or if he passes it we score.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We had our opportunities and I think because the confidence is probably low, those types of things don’t go your way.<\/p>\n

“I thought attitude and effort was there, but execution we were probably down a touch.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shane Flanagan speaks to media.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

Flanagan was then asked why he opted to watch from the bench as opposed to his usual spot up in the grandstand with assistants Michael Ennis and Dean Young. <\/p>\n

“I don’t wanna hide in the coach’s box,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m here to fight, I’m here to win and I’m on the sideline with the team fighting.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t wanna hide in the coach’s box and have cameras going up there – they could have got me for 80 minutes [on the sideline] if they wanted.”<\/p>\n

Flanagan’s side have now gone 0-6 to start the season and remain the only team in the NRL without registering a victory as it stands.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shane Flanagan sits on the sidelines.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

With incredibly tough tasks against the Rabbitohs and Roosters on the horizon and Flanagan’s job on the line, the question was asked whether he would make changes.<\/p>\n

His response indicates it will likely be a similar lineup again next weekend.<\/p>\n

“The issue is with most NRL clubs, what are we gonna replace them with? I’ve got 28 out of our top 30 signed, we’ve got some injuries,” Flanagan said.<\/p>\n

“There’s not someone sitting there where I’m like ‘jump in there’ so it’s a tricky one. If I had someone better out of the side, I would put them in, trust me.”<\/p>\n

Jacob Halangahu and Loko Pasifiki Tonga are two of the game’s most highly-touted young forwards but have played a combined total of 22 minutes all year, while halves Kade Reed and Lyhkan King-Togia are also waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jacob Halangahu has barely been sighted this season. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Flanagan believes the halves pairing against Manly – his son Kyle and star recruit Daniel Atkinson<\/a> – set things up well enough, but their teammates couldn’t capitalise.<\/p>\n

“They created moments – we created enough opportunities, we just didn’t finish them which has been our story through the year,” he said.<\/p>\n

If the struggling Dragons lose their next two games in a row, Flanagan’s role as coach will be all-but over, but captain Damien Cook doesn’t see it that way and believes the playing group are the ones who need to dig the club out of the hole.<\/p>\n

“His rope should be long, because he [Flanagan] is not the issue,” Cook said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Flanagan stood on the sidelines on Friday night, riding the wave of every play as major question…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-598604","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\/598604","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=598604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}