Untenable: Shane Flanagan must go, but he isn’t the only one

The St George Illawarra Dragons have slumped to the worst start in club history, losing all five of their five games played to date.

To put it nicely, Shane Flanagan's side were diabolical on Saturday night, and fans have had enough.

The already small crowd of about 8,000 was, by all reports, halved by fulltime. Those left were either fans of the Cowboys, or there to boo the Dragons playing group off the ground at the end of the game.

Down 14-0 at halftime, the Dragons copped the same treatment after 40 minutes, and every little bit of it was fully deserved.

The insipid attack was part coaching, part effort and part exeuction with the wrong players in the wrong position, while the defence lacked any character or effort from the opening exchanges, with North Queensland able to march down the field with relative ease for much of the contest.

Starting with the attack, and directionless was the word that came to mind more often than it didn't.

It seemed as if the Dragons had about three plays they could go to, and not much else. An 'X' ball - or an inside ball in common terms - for a second-rower, a grubber (which, to be fair, is different from recent weeks), or an end over end kick.

The thing is the Dragons had no problems getting into a decent position to attack from, but their execution once they were there was horrifying.

There was absolutely zero creativity, zero new ideas and when it wasn't working, they just kept going back to the well.

Daniel Atkinson grubbered the ball halfway to Carlton Station on more than one occassion throughout the game, while errors also piled up, as they tend to do when the defence can read your telegraphed attack about an hour before it happens.

In fact, about the only time the Dragons showed any danger all night was when Atkinson, who is clearly not a halfback, made a run through the line.

It was his only decent run of the night, but proved beyond all reasonable doubt he should be playing five-eighth, and that Kade Reed needs to come into this team as a matter of urgency, particularly given Lyhkan King-Togia provided very little.

Attacking issues don't stop with the halfback, but they certainly do pile up against his name.

Clint Gutherson also had a horror game at both ends of the park. Not fast enough to capitalise on any half opportunities, not agile enough to do much in defence, and all that to go with some poor decisions and errors.

He was, in most people's view, already walking the selection tightrope coming into the game, and now surely must be removed from the role.

Whether he moves somewhere else in the team is up in the air, but something has to happen. Tyrell Sloan is no worse in defence, but better in attack, while the rumours on Saturday evening that the Dragons will sign Trai Fuller immediately need to be real for the club to have a chance of sliding away from the wooden spoon.

In defence, as touched on, Gutherson struggled at fullback, but he wasn't the only one.

Lazy missed tackles were on from early in the game, last year's line speed issues were back with full force, and the Cowboys made their opposition pay.

At one point, Jake Clifford, a five-eighth, scored a barge over try through four defenders.

If you were looking for something to sum up the Dragons level of effort on Saturday evening, it would be that play right there.

While the playing group needs to be blown up, Flanagan's coaching was poor.

Jacob Liddle played just a tick over 20 minutes, Blake Lawrie started ahead of Toby Couchman for who knows what reason, and Damien Cook spent far too much time on the field given his passing was at times awful.

Add that to the fact the Dragons tried anything new, and it will raise eyebrows.

By Flanagan's own admission during the post match press conference, he didn't know what had happened.

The coach looked almost on the verge of tears as he addressed the media, apologising to fans and claiming the performance wasn't good enough.

The coach has been through the ringer in the last week with his son suffering that nasty concussion against the Gold Coast Titans last weekend, but Flanagan has, both in the coaches box and media confierences over the last fortnight, cut the shape of a man who knows his time is just about up.

The Dragons only bright spots out of the game were Luciano Leilua, who finished with 241 metres, and Hamish Stewart, who continues to work his tail off at both ends of the park.

But that won't be enough to save Flanagan, who, based on the fact the team have given up playing for him, simply can not be allowed to stay in charge for another week.

He has built the team he wanted. He signed Clint Gutherson, Damien Cook, Valentine Holmes, he installed Atkinson as the halfback, and made the decisions on rotation over the opening weeks.

His playing group have simply checked out, and that is normally the sign the coach has to go.

But for real change at the Dragons, the playing group and head coach can't be allowed to be the only thing that changes.

The club's board have overseen a diabolical 15 years since Wayne Bennett left. There have been changes to that board, of course, but the fact Peter Doust, who was chairman when Bennett was there, is still on the board, tells you all you need to know.

The decision making process at all levels for the Red V has been diabolical for a very, very long time now. They have made just two finals series in that time, burning through Steve Price, Paul McGregor, Anthony Griffin and now Flanagan as coaches.

Flanagan is a premiership-winner, but hasn't been able to find anything approaching success at the Dragons.

While it feels as if the young group of forwards and Kade Reed could pave the way for the future, it hasn't come quickly enough, and the team have actively gone backwards under Flanagan.

It's now time to bite the bullet at all levels of the club and begin a total clean out to erase what has been a horrific decade and a half for the Red V.

It needs to start now.

The rugby league website editor in me will be forced to sit down and watch next Friday evening's game against the Manly Sea Eagles.

The Dragons fan in me, unless there are significant changes this week both in playing group and coaching, doesn't want to.

And I know I'm not the only one.

It's time for changes at every level of the club, otherwise, the ongoing tale of mediocrity bordering on worse that has rode with the Dragons ever since Bennett left will continue.

It's really quite as simple as that.