Flanno's New Signings

[Murfy]

Our attack is going to look a lot different without hunt demanding the ball and doing whatever he likes. Ilias can dig deep into the defensive line which will give our outsides backs space. I think we can expect Holmes and Suli to get a lot of early ball which our centres never seemed to get either

 

[Kolum Kid]

Cook wants to win and he thinks Highly of Ilias.
If Ilias can get his confidence up then we are onto a winner.
Reynolds wasnt let go for this kid for nothing.

Will he be our saviour, I don't know but I believe it has a lot to do with the coach and the players around him. We have a coach who seems to get the best from players, we now have bought in experienced old heads who want to win and are team first.
Tom Deardon cones to mind, unwanted by the broncs, now look at him, just saying

 

[Parko1310]

Keeping the faith, but you can't dress up the Illias signing. That halves pairing is probably just scraping into the top 6 in NSW cup. The whole narrative that Illias was a 'scapegoat' is very misinformed, and a narrative that came from NRL360 and fox outlets led by none other than Braith Anasta who is his manager. The reality is Illias was very, very poor. You can't blame Walker and Latrell for Illias constantly kicking it out on the full and giving up territory, nor the comedy of other errors. I can cop that maybe he hasn't been able to show a creative hand with those guys dominating the attack in that team. But blaming them for everything wrong about Illias' game is just wrong. He wasn't a scaepgoat, he was very much part of the problem

 

[Phantom V]

Lets put a few things into perspective, just having Hunt gone will make us a 20% better team. Our leadership alone improves by gazillions, our morale is back to the Dragons way, not enduring some little sniffler pining to be at another team just to win a premiership. Lets not forget this parasite was our captain FFS, the person responsible for getting the team over the line, leading by example, gluing the club together, rallying the troops when times are tough. There is no need to ask any Dragons supporter if we will be better next year, of course we will be, our f$#king anchor has gone.

Brilliant!

 

[mattw5]

I am trusting Cook’s judgement on this one i am all for it. He would have seen a lot at Souths knowing Walker & Mitchell would have anchored him down a bit.

 

[Victoire]

I'm not feeling joy about this one. Relying on some blind faith in Flanno and the pure hope that we'll be ambitious with a halves signing in 2026

 

[Desperate Dragon]

I'm not feeling joy about this one. Relying on some blind faith in Flanno and the pure hope that we'll be ambitious with a halves signing in 2026

I am with you on this.
Hoping Flanagan can get his career back on track.
Already looking at 2026, I could see Ilias as a utility lock forward/hooker if it does not work out for him as our 7 next season.
He is a solid build and a good defender.

 

[KingFlanno7]

I just went back and watched the game highlights vs Souths when illias was benched, Drops it off the kickoff...Not excited about this signing at all but I will back Flannos judgement

 

[TheRev]

I really wanted Atkinson, 1 speedy half with a lot of potential.. but getting Ilias instead probably negates any chance of us making Top 8, but...... its the best we could do.. and hes definitely the 2nd best option.... plus atleast Hunt is gone now.. and we can move on, we can recruit, we can plan....

And over the next 3-6-12 months Flanno will be working on finding another half option no doubt.. but the way we are trying to catch up on previous years poor recruitment... means we need releases for every player we want.. were not recruiting 12+ mths out like most clubs do if they are trying to poach marquee players.

And we still have 2 slots left, 1 of those will be someone like a Douieh i.e. some sort of bloke who can cover halves I reckon.. I just done see us going into the season with Just Ilias/Kyle as Top30 halves (not including teenagers like LKT etc).

 

[Illusion]

I'm not against and Ilias signing, I just don't know how he and Flanno jr will work together?

Illias will be better than what we had ...... I'm ok with him signing ........

 

[kit66]

Looks like Ilias is our man but no-one seems overly excited by this - apart from the "phew, at least we got someone" consolation.
I'm not really up to date with his injury, I googled it but found more opinions than facts. He's been a free agent since April 2024 apparently which surprised me - no-one's seriously come knocking. I thought he went ok in 22-23 at the Bunnies, played a good supporting roll to his halves partner and had a reasonable kicking game. With us he'll have to take the dominant role in the halves. Can he do that ? Not ideal coming back from a serious leg injury but it's also an opportunity to step out of the shadow of others and lead a team around the park. He'll have plenty of support from Cook, Gutho and others. Without a plan B we can only welcome him aboard and wish him every success.

 

[R&WTILLIDIE]

Keeping the faith, but you can't dress up the Illias signing. That halves pairing is probably just scraping into the top 6 in NSW cup. The whole narrative that Illias was a 'scapegoat' is very misinformed, and a narrative that came from NRL360 and fox outlets led by none other than Braith Anasta who is his manager. The reality is Illias was very, very poor. You can't blame Walker and Latrell for Illias constantly kicking it out on the full and giving up territory, nor the comedy of other errors. I can cop that maybe he hasn't been able to show a creative hand with those guys dominating the attack in that team. But blaming them for everything wrong about Illias' game is just wrong. He wasn't a scaepgoat, he was very much part of the problem

yeah. I agree with you mate. Really hope I’m wrong and he turns out to be a good signing.

 

[Illusion]

If Illias and Kyle are our 6 and 7 Flanno coach will have to come up with a game plan that gets the halves to get the ball to Holmes and Suli then they can do the rest wth Gutho and Cook Liddle ........

Looks like Ilias is our man but no-one seems overly excited by this - apart from the "phew, at least we got someone" consolation.
I'm not really up to date with his injury, I googled it but found more opinions than facts. He's been a free agent since April 2024 apparently which surprised me - no-one's seriously come knocking. I thought he went ok in 22-23 at the Bunnies, played a good supporting roll to his halves partner and had a reasonable kicking game. With us he'll have to take the dominant role in the halves. Can he do that ? Not ideal coming back from a serious leg injury but it's also an opportunity to step out of the shadow of others and lead a team around the park. He'll have plenty of support from Cook, Gutho and others. Without a plan B we can only welcome him aboard and wish him every success.

 

[Jubilee]

Not excited about this signing at all but I will back Flannos judgement

Flanno just signed who was available. The lesson from all of this simple: if you don't have a well-managed production line through pathways, you are going to find yourself at some point going to the open market and either paying huge amounts or getting discards.

Our pathways got screwed by the Amone + Sullivan problems. When they went pear-shaped (legal issues + got big heads) there was no-one else ready to step up. So we now have this gap of years for a new wave of players to come through.

The principle seems to be that we can't annoint successors too early. There has to be redundancy in the pathways (i.e., competition between young guys in critical positions). Look at the amount of competition cronulla currently has in their halves.

Anyway, the job of Ilias + Kyle + LKT now is to hold the fort in the halves until reinforcements arrive...perhaps a few years from now.

 

[Dragon David]

I am also seeing negativity of sorts in the possible signing of Ilias (yet to be confirmed). I know that it is good riddance to Hunt but is Ilias much better and we do need much better not same and definitely not worse? The halves pairing needs to be great, definitely not fair and not even good, but great. We did have close to great with the Hunt/Widdop pairing but still only one finals in 2018 with those two.

If Ilias is signed, would either Kyle or Ilias be match winners because a lot of other clubs' success have been through great halves that can manage and win games? I rather doubt it. Speed is a big factor in both attack and defence and being able to read and anticipate plays. Ilias and Kyle could be good with defence but they are not all that speedy. One needs to be in my opinion.

I'll leave this to Flanno and hopefully he has a better plan for 2026 - he has to have.

 

[Jubilee]

I am also seeing negativity of sorts in the possible signing of Ilias (yet to be confirmed). I know that it is good riddance to Hunt but is Ilias much better and we do need much better not same and definitely not worse? The halves pairing needs to be great, definitely not fair and not even good, but great. We did have close to great with the Hunt/Widdop pairing but still only one finals in 2018 with those two.

If Ilias is signed, would either Kyle or Ilias be match winners because a lot of other clubs' success have been through great halves that can manage and win games? I rather doubt it. Speed is a big factor in both attack and defence and being able to read and anticipate plays. Ilias and Kyle could be good with defence but they are not all that speedy. One needs to be in my opinion.

I'll leave this to Flanno and hopefully he has a better plan for 2026 - he has to have.

With these halves, 12 wins next year is a good pass mark. 14 wins, Coach of The Year.

 

[Coffs dragon]

Illias will be better than what we had ...... I'm ok with him signing ........

I agree Illusion, he’s 10 years younger than Hunt & he can run hard & fast at the line plus can tackle.
I don’t care what his shortcomings are, as he will be an improvement on Pea Heart, suction hands, shirt grabber, dummy spitter and shit Captain.

 

[Dragons4me]

We have two scrap heap halves, will they prove em all wrong ? Flanno is good like that but water into wine, I dunno

Scrap heap halves!! Well done! Says another keyboard hero from his bedroom.

 

[Illusion]

I agree Illusion, he’s 10 years younger than Hunt & he can run hard & fast at the line plus can tackle.
I don’t care what his shortcomings are, as he will be an improvement on Pea Heart, suction hands, shirt grabber, dummy spitter and shit Captain.

Could not have said it any better ........

 

[Ronnie Dobbs]

Keeping the faith, but you can't dress up the Illias signing. That halves pairing is probably just scraping into the top 6 in NSW cup. The whole narrative that Illias was a 'scapegoat' is very misinformed, and a narrative that came from NRL360 and fox outlets led by none other than Braith Anasta who is his manager. The reality is Illias was very, very poor. You can't blame Walker and Latrell for Illias constantly kicking it out on the full and giving up territory, nor the comedy of other errors. I can cop that maybe he hasn't been able to show a creative hand with those guys dominating the attack in that team. But blaming them for everything wrong about Illias' game is just wrong. He wasn't a scaepgoat, he was very much part of the problem

Respect your take and understand your doubts.

LKT is still there. He seems totally forgotten, but he is a player who rose rapidly last year.

Flanno’s system is proven. And he doesn’t buy players he can’t get something out of.

Who has he bought to his teams that have not improved?

Fifita. Matt Prior. Jack Bird was a gun for him before injuries.

And of course, Townsend.

We also beat Penrith and Brisbane away from home with no Hunt last year. Compromised by Origin to a degree, but whatever. Our halves were Flanno Jr and Jesse, who he’s let go.

Anyway, here’s hoping that trend continues with Ilias.