St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan has described the Dragons’ form as “up and down” after posting their fifth win of the season.
The Dragons beat South Sydney 28-14 at Kogarah Jubilee Stadium on Saturday to move to a 5-5 win-loss record and 11th spot on the ladder.
The first 10 matches of Flanagan’s tenure have been quite the rollercoaster for the Dragons.
Zac Lomax, Jaydn Su’A and Tyrell Sloan are enjoying their best seasons in recent memory and the side has claimed impressive home wins over Manly and the Warriors.
But a 60-18 capitulation to the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day and a 38-0 shut-out from the Dolphins in round two have signalled the Flanagan’s Dragons remain a work in progress.
The premiership-winning coach reflected on the season to date ahead of the side’s first bye, which coincides with Magic Round.
“It’s been a pretty tough start, up and down,” said Flanagan, who guided Cronulla to its sole NRL premiership in 2016.
“The preseason that we had, I think a few of the boys need a bit of a break and need a bit of a break from me, I reckon.”
Star playmaker Ben Hunt, who had agitated to leave the Dragons after they sacked coach Anthony Griffin last year, is taking the good with the bad in 2024.
“We’ve been pretty up and down, patchy,” Hunt said.
“We’ve shown that we can play good footy for periods of time but we just switch off for little periods.
“If you told me at the start of the year if we went into our bye 5-5, I’d probably take it in previous years.”
Hunt said after the bye, the Dragons needed to prioritise keeping focus for entire matches.
“It’s something that’s happened in almost every game, even the ones that we’ve won. We’ve got to try and get that out,” Hunt said.
