Dragons coach Shane Flanagan says he does not have the answers right now but is determined to use the “next couple of days” to find out why his club has fallen into an 0-5 hole.
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The Red V were shut out 32-0 by North Queensland on Saturday night to slump to the joint-venture’s worst-ever start to a season.
It leaves Flanagan under enormous pressure ahead of Round 6, although next week’s opposition in Manly is proof he is far from guaranteed to even still be in charge by that point after the Sea Eagles brutally axed Anthony Seibold late last month.
That followed an underwhelming 2025 season for Manly and the Dragons fared even worse last year, finishing 15th with an 8-16 record.
Flanagan admitted earlier in the week that there was little he could do outside of winning games to ease the pressure, and a result like the one on Saturday will instead only further put the spotlight on him.
It has been a sudden slide to the bottom of the ladder for the Dragons, who showed plenty of fight in the season-opener against the Bulldogs and Flanagan was grilled by reporters in his press conference after their latest defeat.
“It’s not good enough. I completely understand,” he said.
“No excuses put out there. I’ve got to find out why. That’s my job over the next couple of days to find out why. Not good enough.”
Flanagan said it was almost like his team “didn’t know each other” at different stages, and while the Dragons completed at 86 per cent that didn’t tell the full story of just how disjointed they looked at times in attack.
“We put passes behind each other. The lack of cohesion was very disappointing,” Flanagan said.
“I’m not trying to cover over anything. I’m very, very, very disappointed with the performance. I haven’t got the answers for you right now. I’ve got to find them and find them quickly.”
While Kyle Flanagan was unavailable for Saturday’s game, the Dragons were otherwise fielding their first-choice spine headlined by the experienced Clint Gutherson and Damien Cook.
Daniel Atkinson is a fresh face while Lyhkan King-Togia is still only developing at 20 years old, but otherwise Flanagan has a relatively settled squad which is simply not performing.
When asked how that is the case in his third year at the helm, Flanagan pointed towards the fact the current season is only five rounds old.
“There’s some new players in there in important parts of the team,” he added.
“As I said, I’m not making excuses, I fully understand the frustration. I’m as frustrated as anyone.”
The fans are certainly frustrated, having booed the Dragons off the field on Saturday night. They clearly want changes, so what does coach Flanagan see happening after a result like that?
“Not sure. Not sure,” he said.
“All I know is I can just do my best and that’s what I do every day when I go to work, making sure that we prepare the team the best we can.
“It hasn’t worked so far this year. I’m not going to give up.”
A lot of Dragons fans have been calling for young playmaker Kade Reed to be blooded at NRL level, but Flanagan insisted last week that he didn’t feel the talented teenager was ready and that he didn’t want to rush his development.
Seibold faced a similar dilemma with Joey Walsh at Manly and while Flanagan may be hesitant to throw Reed in the deep end, he may be forced to make more changes than simply switching out wingers as he has done in recent weeks.
New recruit Daniel Atkinson had been solid up until Saturday night but had a few poor last-tackle options, with Flanagan admitting they “weren’t great”.
But he refused to confirm whether he would consider shaking up the halves pairing next week.
“I’m not going to go into team selections and changes tonight,” Flanagan said.
“We were disappointed. It’s not good enough for this club. We’re not covering over it, but I’ll look at that tonight.”
Either way, Flanagan said he will have to “come up with some answers” and “changes” and given his comments to Australian Associated Press earlier in the week, he also appears to understand the urgency of his situation.
“I fully understand it. If you’re going to coach at a big club we expect to win,” Flanagan told AAP ahead of the loss to the Cowboys.
“That’s the cut-throat nature we’re in sport. You see it all over the world if you don’t win.
“The club and CEO, chairman and board have been rock solid. But I am not silly enough to understand that if you don’t win, they’ve got to change something.
“We can’t change our 30-man roster, I can’t sack 30 players. So guess what, it’s (on me).”
Dragons skipper Damien Cook came to the defence of his coach, much like Manly’s players did in the wake of Seibold’s exit, declaring it is on them to turn it around.
“We’re the ones out there,” Cook said.
“You’ve seen what our game plan can do in the first few rounds and tonight was just bad. We need to have a hard look at ourselves. Make sure that we’re all individually doing our job better because we’ve shown at times that it works against some top teams.
“What we tossed up tonight was… just bad and it’s disappointing. We’re getting everything we need and we’re just not performing.
“We didn’t perform tonight and there’s been times in games where we’ve lost it in the last 20. It’s hard and us as players, we’re the reason and we’ve got to keep working harder.
“A big sorry to the fans. I mean that.”
Originally published as ‘I am sorry’: Shane Flanagan vows to make ‘changes’ in post-match grilling
