Flanno's New Signings

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

Glad we're chasing a hooker.. I still dont know how we plan to use Liddle.. I dont think going 80mins is realistic.. let alone staying uninjured doing it.. I'm really curious to see if we run a 14 to give him a rest.. if so who?

And I dont see anything but an injury-filler in Muhleisen who is probably gone end of season (standard disclaimer: hope I'm wrong about him).. I feel like we only re-signed Connor for 2024 because we literally need bodies in positions to field our 1st grade and nsw cup teams... and this kid bleeds red&white.

You would hope there is some strategising going on but I'm buggered if I can see it. First we were chasing gun halves (Dearden/Manu/that English bloke), then reserve grade halves with potential, and now we're after a hooker?

 

[kit66]

Raiders snuck into the 8 with a bottom 4 for and against, they underachieved with that roster. If Flanno could achieve the same season however with our roster, it would be the single most brilliant achievement of NRL history. A couple of injuries to our first 17 and it’ll be boys vs men.

Yeah it's their forward pack keeping them in games, their halves and backs are pretty ordinary.
I don't know why they need 4 hookers in their squad, Woollford, Levi, Starling and Trevilyan. We should have offered a Feagai or two for Woolford.

 

[TheRev]

You would hope there is some strategising going on but I'm buggered if I can see it. First we were chasing gun halves (Dearden/Manu/that English bloke), then reserve grade halves with potential, and now we're after a hooker?

Flanno was always after a half and a hooker.. he's just sliding down the quality list sadly... cause we couldnt land the ones we wanted.

He was always after a hooker though, he said it in interviews and Ipape was one of the first ones to turn us down.. and Brailey was the other we were unofficially chasing (friend of the family etc).. maybe that has fallen through and now were looking at cup hookers? Sux how hard it is for us to get even 2nd or 3rd string talent to our club.. we at such a disadvantage to the other teams.

 

[offiah]

Not really sure what all the confusion is about. Woodford was likely a similar type signing to Volkman, just for 24 to fill the gap of no backup hooker. We need to improve in 2024 to be a better destination for bigger signings in 2025+.

 

[Parko1310]

Not really sure what all the confusion is about. Woodford was likely a similar type signing to Volkman, just for 24 to fill the gap of no backup hooker. We need to improve in 2024 to be a better destination for bigger signings in 2025+.

Most of the quality available for 2025 is already snapped up or is quickly being worked on to be snapped up. The Dragons have largely missed out again already, the number of prospects is dwindling. Here's hoping we get Luki, but that's dragged out and gone cold for the moment. Not a great sign. The more time Heilum spends thinking about it, the less attractive the Dragons become each and every day. Much to their own doing.

 

[justadragon]

Not really sure what all the confusion is about. Woodford was likely a similar type signing to Volkman, just for 24 to fill the gap of no backup hooker. We need to improve in 2024 to be a better destination for bigger signings in 2025+.

I suppose the club doesn't think much of Muhleisen then.

 

[twinkletoes]

I’m totally bemused by the fact we can’t sign not only above average first grade players let alone marquee players, while the Tigers and Bulldogs, our main competition for the spoon are able to sign players seemingly without too much fuss. The Tigers spine in 2025 will look like Korisai, Luai and Bula, on paper a pretty potent combination…. while we are looking like Liddell, Hunt and Sloan….reasonably assuming there are no significant players in those positions available for 2025 having already been tied down by other clubs.

while we are stuck with Haran, Millard and Millard, the Tigers have Shane Richardson, who already after a few weeks has had a significant impact on the Tigers and how they are perceived in the marketplace, and the Bulldogs have Gould, who like him or not, is a master at constructing a club.

The Dragons will not be seen as a serious football club with the potential to attract quality players until the front office is totally restructured … FLanaghan cannot be held accountable for our recruitment debacle until the incompetent bludgers above him are moved on but this seemingly is a near impossible task… so we will continue to be at best a middle of the road footy team until such time as this happens…. which would seem for the immediate future!!

 

[thebigredv]

I’m totally bemused by the fact we can’t sign not only above average first grade players let alone marquee players, while the Tigers and Bulldogs, our main competition for the spoon are able to sign players seemingly without too much fuss. The Tigers spine in 2025 will look like Korisai, Luai and Bula, on paper a pretty potent combination…. while we are looking like Liddell, Hunt and Sloan….reasonably assuming there are no significant players in those positions available for 2025 having already been tied down by other clubs.

while we are stuck with Haran, Millard and Millard, the Tigers have Shane Richardson, who already after a few weeks has had a significant impact on the Tigers and how they are perceived in the marketplace, and the Bulldogs have Gould, who like him or not, is a master at constructing a club.

The Dragons will not be seen as a serious football club with the potential to attract quality players until the front office is totally restructured … FLanaghan cannot be held accountable for our recruitment debacle until the incompetent bludgers above him are moved on but this seemingly is a near impossible task… so we will continue to be at best a middle of the road footy team until such time as this happens…. which would seem for the immediate future!!

Comparatively to the opposition, we have the worst squad ever assembled in the history of the salary cap being a thing. Tigers will probably go average but their top 30 is streaks ahead of ours and gets better in 2025. If I am a Tigers fan I am excited. No assurance that they'll get better fast but there's enough there to capture your interest for sure.

I like to kick and scream, rant and rave on here and have done so for 10 years but, rather astonishingly, the state of our recruitment is far more dire than I could have predicted. People will back Flanno, and I will back him too but there's no guarantee that it gets better. Perhaps some opportunities arise mid season where we are the only team that can make a play at a wantaway star. That's the best I can conjure up.

How disgusting is it really.

 

[TheRev]

I’m totally bemused by the fact we can’t sign not only above average first grade players let alone marquee players, while the Tigers and Bulldogs, our main competition for the spoon are able to sign players seemingly without too much fuss. The Tigers spine in 2025 will look like Korisai, Luai and Bula, on paper a pretty potent combination…. while we are looking like Liddell, Hunt and Sloan….reasonably assuming there are no significant players in those positions available for 2025 having already been tied down by other clubs.

while we are stuck with Haran, Millard and Millard, the Tigers have Shane Richardson, who already after a few weeks has had a significant impact on the Tigers and how they are perceived in the marketplace, and the Bulldogs have Gould, who like him or not, is a master at constructing a club.

The Dragons will not be seen as a serious football club with the potential to attract quality players until the front office is totally restructured … FLanaghan cannot be held accountable for our recruitment debacle until the incompetent bludgers above him are moved on but this seemingly is a near impossible task… so we will continue to be at best a middle of the road footy team until such time as this happens…. which would seem for the immediate future!!

I've been saying this for months.. the Tigers are minimum 2yrs ahead of our rebuild (closer to 3yrs now that we missed every one of our 2025 targets).. you need to land a big marquee fish to attract the other big fish to your club AND to encourage your juniors to stay patient (this is the part fans forget.. it takes years of being in/out of reserve grade to develop a kid into a 1st grader... and the good ones get plenty of starry eyed offers from Robbo, Bennett, Bellamy etc, coaches at successful clubs).. Bostock is a classic example there.. he had an easy path to 1st grade @ saints.. he would have had Feagai's, Sloan's or a Ctr spot most of 2023.. but he left anyway to a more promising club.

Papalii > Api got the Tigers rolling...everyone on here has been too busy laughing at them..

That said AFB would have been a total cheat code landing in our lap.. to get our build rolling.. so missing him (Dearden too obviously) has probably cost us atleast another 12 months of pain... missing AFB meant so much more than just his value as a prop...

 

[BIG RIG]

Comparatively to the opposition, we have the worst squad ever assembled in the history of the salary cap being a thing. Tigers will probably go average but their top 30 is streaks ahead of ours and gets better in 2025. If I am a Tigers fan I am excited. No assurance that they'll get better fast but there's enough there to capture your interest for sure.

I like to kick and scream, rant and rave on here and have done so for 10 years but, rather astonishingly, the state of our recruitment is far more dire than I could have predicted. People will back Flanno, and I will back him too but there's no guarantee that it gets better. Perhaps some opportunities arise mid season where we are the only team that can make a play at a wantaway star. That's the best I can conjure up.

How disgusting is it really.

I gotta agree 100 percent

On paper as of right now this squad that has been put together is absolutely pathetic and highlights the failure of all involved in recruitment prior to Flannos takeover

This can obviously change as the season goes on as young guys such as Fifita , Tamale and the Couchmans could become higher rated stars by seasons end but right now seriously reading that team list is an eye sore

Depth wise we are f**ked aswell

I pray that Flanno can get the best out of them and considering he coached through an ASADA scandal I got a little faith that he can

But I’m still keeping my bar low and that is us winning the spoon with ease

 

[TheRev]

The best case scenario is Flanno has us playing Dolphins like football (i.e. far beyond expectations).. but the Dolphins had some real point scoring wizards in that 2023 squad + Wallace/Gilbert/Kaufusi/Bromwich1/Bromwich2 & Stone/Nicholls, those are all rep or close to it quality forwards.. ofcourse now they have Flegler too. But that is a serious pack.. Bennett is no mug.

If we jag early 2024 wins we will make a contest of the spoon in the back end.. maybe the raiders or tigers will be down there too.... or someone unexpected... but if we get off to a rough start it could get ugly.

If we can finish out of the Bottom 4 then Flanno is a god damn mastermind... and honestly its the only way out for us now... i.e. impress on the field to attract players off it.

 

[56to66]

I was watching the 1984 major semi-final against the Eels on YouTube the other day. FMD, what a roster Roy Masters assembled! They had the likes of Steve Rogers, Michael Beattie, Brian Johnston, Brian Johnson, 'Slippery' Morris, a young Chris Johns, and Michael O'Connor. I remember how they could sign up basically any world-class centre without any issues. In those days, that was a major part of the spine. They had tough, skillful forwards. I had forgotten how skillful Craig Young was, even when kicking for touch in general play. The only reason the Saints fell short of winning the GF was because Perry Haddock and Steve Linnane weren't as good as Sterlo or Mortimer.
Anyway, it looks like another long season in 2024. Hopefully, Flanno can work some wizardry within our own junior ranks very quickly, producing plenty of Rookies of the Year from St George

 

[Dragon David]

Comparatively to the opposition, we have the worst squad ever assembled in the history of the salary cap being a thing. Tigers will probably go average but their top 30 is streaks ahead of ours and gets better in 2025. If I am a Tigers fan I am excited. No assurance that they'll get better fast but there's enough there to capture your interest for sure.

I like to kick and scream, rant and rave on here and have done so for 10 years but, rather astonishingly, the state of our recruitment is far more dire than I could have predicted. People will back Flanno, and I will back him too but there's no guarantee that it gets better. Perhaps some opportunities arise mid season where we are the only team that can make a play at a wantaway star. That's the best I can conjure up.

How disgusting is it really.

It is more than disgusting thebigredv. I as well as a number of us are only just hanging in with our following of this club and I know that the season hasn't even started and even before Hook was bulleted out things regarding recruitment were dire. However, with Hook's sacking came the new day to usher in more hope for a better future with the signing of Flanagan and then Hunt pipes up and fouls our club like no other by saying he wanted out and we lose lots more credibility causing good players not wanting to join (besides other reasons of course but to me Hunt's wanting out more or less has killed us for the next few years).

The change of head coach was definitely needed and while Ryles' back flip didn't help us as well initially, it is possibly a godsend good thing that he did. Flanagan now has a harder job to get the club moving up the ladder because of the inability of the club not being able to secure those players who have gone to rival clubs or stayed at their current clubs. We have been unable to sell the club well. The continued undesired dramas of off field offences (Amone), the injury to Allan, the pros and cons of Volkman's position makes it look like we just cannot get things right. Has there been a curse cast on us and if so, why?

Is our club being seen as not being worthy to be in the NRL - for example missing out on playing in Magic Round. The Dragons followed by so many here and abroad and we are rejected from that Round. Once the BIG club has now been reduced to "take it or leave it" status. To me it is obvious that the NRL couldn't give a damn about us so why should any decent player care?

That is my rant thebigredv. I sincerely hope that something good can happen though for us in 2024.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

this woolford thing
i don't understand why the raiders (R Stuart) don't rate him higher than Levi when like...just using your eyes to watch the raiders tells you that one is much better than the other

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

It is more than disgusting thebigredv. I as well as a number of us are only just hanging in with our following of this club and I know that the season hasn't even started and even before Hook was bulleted out things regarding recruitment were dire. However, with Hook's sacking came the new day to usher in more hope for a better future with the signing of Flanagan and then Hunt pipes up and fouls our club like no other by saying he wanted out and we lose lots more credibility causing good players not wanting to join (besides other reasons of course but to me Hunt's wanting out more or less has killed us for the next few years).

The change of head coach was definitely needed and while Ryles' back flip didn't help us as well initially, it is possibly a godsend good thing that he did. Flanagan now has a harder job to get the club moving up the ladder because of the inability of the club not being able to secure those players who have gone to rival clubs or stayed at their current clubs. We have been unable to sell the club well. The continued undesired dramas of off field offences (Amone), the injury to Allan, the pros and cons of Volkman's position makes it look like we just cannot get things right. Has there been a curse cast on us and if so, why?

Is our club being seen as not being worthy to be in the NRL - for example missing out on playing in Magic Round. The Dragons followed by so many here and abroad and we are rejected from that Round. Once the BIG club has now been reduced to "take it or leave it" status. To me it is obvious that the NRL couldn't give a damn about us so why should any decent player care?

That is my rant thebigredv. I sincerely hope that something good can happen though for us in 2024.

So, the magic round

there are certain clubs that lobby hard for the home game cos money. if you have a situation like that, your pool of teams to miss out is gonna be limited to a few, given no qld team is ever gonna miss out either

 

[st.phil]

not a big fan of Woolford - bog average, thanks Stick. Liddle rungs above him IMO but doesn't sound like the club rate Mulheison

 

[Stake Removed]

So, the magic round

there are certain clubs that lobby hard for the home game cos money. if you have a situation like that, your pool of teams to miss out is gonna be limited to a few, given no qld team is ever gonna miss out either

Add to that the Storm, Warriors and Sea Eagles .
There is about 5 clubs who would miss out 1025 it will be eithers Dogs, Sharks or Raiders

 

[getsmarty]

NRL transfer hub: Panthers re-sign Izack Tago to new $3 million deal

Tago is about to put pen to paper on a $3 million extension with the three-time reigning champions, making him one of the highest-paid centres in the competition.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Walpole]

NRL transfer hub: Panthers re-sign Izack Tago to new $3 million deal

Tago is about to put pen to paper on a $3 million extension with the three-time reigning champions, making him one of the highest-paid centres in the competition.

www.smh.com.au

Raiders gave him permission to talk to other clubs but when the Dragons showed their interest Ricky changed his mind. Don't think we could get much worse at this recruitment business.

 

[getsmarty]

Raiders gave him permission to talk to other clubs but when the Dragons showed their interest Ricky changed his mind. Don't think we could get much worse at this recruitment business.

If they want one of our players in the future... give them the same option in return....