The situation at the St George Illawarra Dragons has gone from bad to bewildering, with the club cancelling Tuesday's training altogether. The cancellation comes as Shane Flanagan will part ways with the club immediately, just days out from Saturday's annual Anzac Day clash with the Sydney Roosters.
Flanagan's exit was formally announced in a Monday morning press conference, immediately throwing the club into uncertainty with no interim coach yet appointed and minimal preparation time for one of the NRL's biggest fixtures.
On Monday, players had arrived at the Dragons' new-look headquarters in Wollongong for what was intended to be an early training session. The squad completed their usual recovery and gym work, but a planned video review of last Saturday's loss to South Sydney was not completed, with the coaching change impacting the team's preparation.
By Monday afternoon, the disruption escalated further, with the club deciding that no field session would take place on Tuesday at all.
The Dragon's board will determine who will step in as interim head coach, with a decision expected by Tuesday lunchtime following urgent meetings.
According to The Daily Telegraph, there is still internal tension around the appointment, with resistance within sections of the board to elevating current assistant coach Dean Young into the interim role.
If Young is overlooked, the job would likely fall to fellow assistant Mick Ennis or NSW Cup coach Willie Talau, both understood to be in consideration for a short-term solution.
Former Dragons hooker Mark Riddell, who is involved with the club's NRLW program, has also been mentioned as a potential stop-gap option, while another candidate being discussed is Ben Hornby — a former Dragons player and teammate of Young who is viewed by some as a figure who could bring fresh energy while still understanding the club's culture.
Despite the uncertainty, there is understood to be strong support for Young within the playing group and from the St George faction of the club, with players privately favouring him to take over, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Young has previously served as interim head coach, guiding the Dragons to two wins from six games in 2020 when he replaced Paul McGregor, giving him recent experience in a similar situation of mid-season instability.
The Dragons are still scheduled to return to training on Wednesday, by which time the club hopes an interim coach will be installed. However, with Monday effectively split between a partial session and an abandoned review, and Tuesday now completely wiped from the calendar, preparation for the Roosters has already been significantly disrupted.
It is highly unusual for an NRL club to lose its head coach and immediately enter a period with no training structure in place, particularly so close to an important fixture in the calendar. The Dragons now face a race against time to restore order before one of the most high-profile matches of the season.
With team lists due to be named on Tuesday afternoon, attention now turns to whether the club can settle on leadership quickly enough to avoid a difficult on-field assignment against a well-prepared Roosters side coming off a win.
The board should have had the interim coach identified, agreed internally and lined up BEFORE sacking Shane Flanagan. What a bunch of idiots !