Tyrell Sloan has seen a lot in his young NRL career, but nothing quite like this.
Once an unchallenged fullback prospect at the Dragons, Sloan now finds himself adapting to a different role with the arrival of Clint Gutherson.
He will move to the wing in the new year, with coach Shane Flanagan hoping to turn the speedster into a try-scoring machine.
Rather than resist the shift, the 21-year-old has taken it as an opportunity to grow, both as a player and a professional.
“At the start, I was a bit unsure about it. It's fight or flight,” Sloan admitted to the Sydney Morning Herald.
“I was a bit confused about the decision.”
“But when I actually got to meet Gutho and you see the way he goes about his day, how he trains, how he moves, how he works, how he communicates, just all the little things that he does, then I understood why we brought Gutho in.”
With Gutherson locked in as Shane Flanagan's first-choice fullback, Sloan is expected to shift to the right wing alongside barnstorming centre Moses Suli.
It's a move that a younger, more inexperienced version of Sloan may have struggled to accept, but his approach now is markedly different.
“It's all sweet, it's all business. I'm happy that he's here,” he said.
“I could have taken it a different way and kicked stones, but Gutho's been the best since day one.”
Sloan, who debuted in 2021, has always had the raw ability to make an impact, but consistency and structure have been constant challenges.
Speaking with SMH, it's evident that he recognises that in his early years in first grade he lacked the discipline required to sustain long-term success.
“At the start of my career, I did not know how to take it at all. I was probably uncoachable,”
“I didn't really want advice and thought I knew everything.”
“I got a real rude shock into NRL.”
Gutherson's presence at the club has been an eye-opener for Sloan, who sees the former Eels captain as the ultimate professional.
“There's some things that I can do that Gutho can't do, and there's things that he does that I can't do,” Sloan said.
“I feel like if I can grab some stuff from his game and implement it in mine, I'll be a lot better player for it.”
Gutherson's leadership style has already begun to influence the squad, with Sloan particularly impressed by his accountability and competitive mentality.
“The way he approaches training, he just challenges everyone, challenges the staff, and he's not afraid to pull out players that are in the wrong,” Sloan said.
“The Dragons boys now are growing from that, not from just walking away from stuff and walking past it.”
“You pull them up when people have gone wrong, and he's brought that competitive mindset.”
Off the field, Sloan has made major strides in creating stability in his personal life, something he believes is translating to greater consistency in his performances.
“I was probably a bit frantic early in my career; I was living at other people's houses and not really sure where I was gonna be throughout the day,” he said.
“I was always up and down.”
“But then I bought my own house, got some structure in my life and really settled down.”
His end-of-season review with Flanagan served as a necessary wake-up call, reinforcing the reality that nothing in the NRL is guaranteed.
“Until you hear it from someone else, it can be quite a shock,” Sloan admitted.
While focused on making an impact for the Dragons in 2025, Sloan also weighed in on the ongoing debate about the timing of the All Stars match.
With the game often clashing with preseason and key player availability, he suggested an alternative.
“It might be a pretty cool initiative to have it at the end of the year, just after the grand final, a couple of weeks after that,” he said.
“That would be around the [Koori] knockout time.”
“Maybe they could take it to a rural venue so all the mob get to see the All Stars.”
For Sloan, the past few seasons have been a learning curve, but 2025 presents a fresh start with renewed focus.
“I feel like I'm a bit more mature now, a bit more level-headed,” he said.