Canterbury Bulldogs halfback Kyle Flanagan has opened up on how Mick Potter has turned the club around following the sacking of Trent Barrett, and thrown his support behind the interim boss to take over fulltime next year, despite the continued push for Cameron Ciraldo.
Reports have linked Ciraldo with a move to the Bulldogs in recent times, however, the Belmore-based outfit have turned a horrid start to the season around under Potter.
Playing an attacking brand of football, Canterbury have managed to win four of their last six games, scoring 24 or more points in five of those.
Potter originally had no interest in remaining in a coaching role in 2023, but recently changed his tune, and Flanagan said he would be great for the club.
"I'm not too sure if he [Potter] wants to get involved or stay involved," Flanagan said.
"I can't give any more credit to what Pottsy has done for me individually or this footy team.
"He is such a calm head and simplifies things so much for us. He just backs up and gives us confidence to go out there and play footy, and we do exactly that.
"We are repaying the faith he puts in us."
Opening up on Potter's involvement as head coach, Flanagan said that for both him individually, and for the club as a whole, Potter has played a huge role in freeing up their attack and instilling confidence into the outfit.
"I want to give credit to him [Potter], Craig Sandercock and Dave Furner," Flanagan said.
"And obviously give credit to the team that we have turned things around. We are out there putting the wins on the board, the shackles are off and we are just playing what we see.
"It's really exciting to be playing in this footy team and for myself, I'm just really enjoying my own footy and starting to love playing every weekend."
Flanagan added that the game plan being simplified was the most important part of what Potter had brought to the club, with the Bulldogs moving away from a previous structure that they had been coached into by Trent Barrett.
Barrett exited the club just over two months into the 2022 campaign after continued poor form despite an off-season signing spree.
"I think at times last year people thought we were quite a structured team, but it wasn't. That's just the way we were being coached at the time," Flanagan said.
"Now we are out there being footy players and everyone is doing their job.
"That's what is super exciting about the last couple of weeks or month that we have been building and we are looking to take that into the next five weeks."
The run of form has allowed the Bulldogs to move to 6 wins from 19 games, and escape the bottom four for the time being, sitting ahead of the New Zealand Warriors, Newcastle Knights, Wests Tigers and Gold Coast Titans on the ladder.
