It is never usually good news when the chairman of an NRL club invites the head coach around for breakfast on a Sunday morning.
That is precisely what happened over the weekend when Andrew Lancaster reached out to now former St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan.
The Dragons had just lost their seventh straight game to start the season – 30-12 to South Sydney on Saturday night – continuing a run of 11 straight defeats that stretches back to round 23 of last year.
As if Lancaster were not already feeling enough pain, he bumped into Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a passionate South Sydney fan, in one of the corporate boxes at Accor Stadium. Albanese politely reminded Lancaster of the score.
To be fair to Albanese, he also told Lancaster he would park his club allegiance and help officially launch the Dragons’ shiny new training facility at Wollongong, better known as the Bruce Gordon Centre, next month.
But, back to the brekkie in Sydney with Lancaster, Dragons chief executive Tim Watsford, Flanagan and his manager, Isaac Moses.
The easy thing for the Dragons to do was wait a week and part ways with Flanagan when they had the bye.
Why take the gloss off Saturday’s Anzac Day clash against the Sydney Roosters – arguably the biggest club game on the calendar for the Red V – by sacking the coach?
But Lancaster, in his role as CEO of WIN Corporation, the biggest single shareholder of Nine Entertainment, which owns this masthead, is always checking in on the wellbeing of his staff, and knew Flanagan was starting to show the strain of the immense public pressure.
Flanagan looked like a ghost and was lost for words after the loss to the Cowboys earlier this month. Late in the game against Souths, Fox Sports cameras captured him leaning back on a chair, seeming like he was almost wanting to hide beneath his Dragons cap.
Lancaster was worried about what another week of scrutiny would do to Flanagan, not to mention his loved ones, including his son, Dragons playmaker Kyle Flanagan.
With a deal that ran through to the end of 2028, Flanagan was entitled to a healthy payout. Hence, Moses came to breakfast as Flanagan’s “plus one″.
The Dragons had been mulling over whether to let Flanagan go for several weeks.
As Lancaster said: “We’ve been speaking with Shane and the football staff along the way – this is not something you just do because you choose to on a Monday morning.”
Rumours began to swirl on Sunday that Flanagan was gone. When this masthead contacted Lancaster midway through the first half of the Eels-Bulldogs clash, he confirmed he had spoken with Flanagan, but it was something he regularly did after games.
He had spent the rest of the day catching up with his two adult daughters.
There was never going to be a scenario where Flanagan had the chance to coach one last time on Anzac Day.
The Dragons learnt the hard way when they sacked Paul McGregor in 2020, only to let him remain in charge one final time for a game against Parramatta. The Dragons sprung an upset to beat the Eels 14-12 on an emotional night. The embrace with Cam McInnes – and the player’s gesture to hand over his playing jersey to his good mate – became an iconic moment in the COVID-interrupted season.
Late Sunday night, Dragons players were told not to attend a 7am Monday pool recovery session and head straight to the Bruce Gordon Centre. Lancaster and Watsford addressed the playing group in the theatrette.
Football manager Ben Haran, who had spent almost 20 years at the club, was also gone. Haran had actually handed in his resignation on Friday and wanted to be the fall guy for the club’s latest run of outs.
The Dragons dropped the ball again, however, by not having an interim coach in place before they fronted the media.
Manly sacked coach Anthony Seibold after three rounds on a Friday evening, and the next morning appointed Kieran Foran as caretaker coach.
The Dragons knew they had to wait for a 9.30am board meeting on Tuesday before making anything official. Current assistants Dean Young and Mick Ennis were both locked in meetings for most of Monday.
Lancaster was one of the first to depart the complex on Monday. He had to get to Nine’s headquarters in North Sydney for the latest round of broadcast negotiations with the NRL. It would have been a welcome relief considering the drama at his club.
Several players hit the gym, others completed a light recovery session on one of the adjoining fields, while injured co-captain Clint Gutherson was later spotted testing out his injured hamstring.
None of the players commented as they exited the building before 1pm. Prop Josh Kerr smiled and said he risked being fined if he opened his mouth. Damien Cook pretended to be on the phone before politely declining to comment.
Jaydn Su’A, who was hit with a three-match ban for a shoulder charge on Souths skipper Cameron Murray, also said he could not talk. When later pressed if he would even be at the Dragons beyond June 30, or at new club Parramatta, Su’A said: “I’m contracted to the Dragons this year. I haven’t even thought that far ahead. I’m a Dragon until I’m not a Dragon.”
Flanagan, a premiership winner in 2016 with Cronulla, will get the chance to farewell his players in good time. Now 60, who knows if he still has the hunger to be a head coach at a third club? Who knows if he still had an appetite for breakfast on Sunday morning?
