{"id":712198,"date":"2026-06-03T08:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712198\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:37:18","slug":"nrl-news-2026-kyle-flanagan-breaks-silence-on-shanes-exit-from-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712198\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Kyle Flanagan breaks silence on Shane\u2019s exit from Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Flanagan<\/a> is no stranger to being under the spotlight and the fallout of his father Shane<\/a>\u2019s exit from the Dragons<\/a> is another challenge. <\/p>\n

Shane was dismissed as head coach <\/a>after a dismal winless run, with the club only breaking a 15-game losing streak on Sunday against the Broncos<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Kyle<\/p>\n

Kyle Flanagan looks to his teammates against the Broncos.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Flanagan had not spoken to media since his father\u2019s departure in April, but has now opened up on the difficult circumstances at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been a challenge,\u201d Flanagan said<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old man\u2019s sort of come out the last couple of weeks and said his part in it<\/a>. For me, I\u2019ll probably touch on it a bit further down the track. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a few challenges thrown at the club and different individuals, but you come to work to get better and do your job for the team. That is the way I approached every day – come here, be a better man and go home to my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just focused on doing my absolute best for the team. I love competing with my teammates and helping this team and this club win, that\u2019s what my focus is.\u201d <\/p>\n

After short stints with the Sharks and Roosters early in his career, Flanagan spent three years with the Bulldogs before reuniting with his dad at the Red V.<\/p>\n

\"Kyle<\/p>\n

Kyle Flanagan breaks his silence on his father’s sacking from the Dragons.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

Once his father was axed, Flanagan found himself dropped by interim coach Dean Young, who looked in favour of 20-year-old Kade Reed to don the Red V. <\/p>\n

With the rookie now sidelined due to injury, Flanagan is back in the starting side.<\/p>\n

Asked where he found the resilience to step back in without hesitation, Flanagan put it down to his lifelong dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just keep bringing it back to why I started playing the game of rugby league. I love playing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it always comes back to why you started and the goals you have within the game. What\u2019s your why? What\u2019s your reason why you want to get out of bed every morning and come down here to Wollongong? That all motivates me to keep playing, keep training hard and keep getting better as a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think that I am a goal-driven person, so I have plenty of goals I want to achieve in the game, that is my focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what his why was, Flanagan replied: \u201cMy family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s obviously a why for a lot of footy players. You go there to do the best for your family and represent yourself the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first win of the season has inspired a new sense of belief within the Dragons camp, with Flanagan determined to claim another victory against Cronulla.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely a good feel up at Suncorp, we\u2019ve had a few good results going up there,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething the Dragons haven\u2019t been good at is winning on the road. This club wants to focus on is putting back-to-back performances together. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of weeks have been up and down in the way we have played, so backing it up against the Sharks, a local derby, there is no excuse to not turn up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Flanagan is no stranger to being under the spotlight and the fallout of his father Shane\u2019s exit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-712198","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\/712198","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=712198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}