{"id":388673,"date":"2026-04-20T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388673\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:03:10","slug":"dragons-confirm-dean-young-as-interim-head-coach-shane-flanagan-axed-ben-hornby-michael-ennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388673\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragons confirm Dean Young as interim head coach, Shane Flanagan axed, Ben Hornby, Michael Ennis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The St George Illawarra Dragons have confirmed that assistant coach Dean Young has been appointed as the new interim head coach and will take charge for at least the remainder of the 2026 season.<\/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>.<\/p>\n<p>A former premiership-winner with the club during his playing days, Young has been coaching for 14 years and is currently an assistant coach of the NSW Blues under Laurie Daley.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/poster-fallback.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to lead this club,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis current group of players mean a lot to me. I want to support them through this transition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur focus right now is staying connected as a team and being the best version of ourselves on Anzac Day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the appointment of Young on an interim basis, the Dragons are currently in the process of appointing a permanent head coach for the 2027 season onwards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDean understands this club better than most,\u201d Dragons CEO Tim Watsford said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has a deep connection to the Dragons and the respect of our players and staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis appointment provides the football program with stability and leadership while the club undertakes a thorough process around its long-term coaching future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur priority right now is to support Dean and the playing group as they restore consistency in our performance and ensure the standards of this club are upheld every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St George Illawarra Dragons have confirmed that assistant coach Dean Young has been appointed as the new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-388673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}