Dragons take aim at ‘personal agendas’ but Flanagan got a good run

Moments after Shane Flanagan’s departure from the Dragons was confirmed, St George Illawarra chairman Andrew Lancaster said he had messages for three groups.

Firstly, Dragons supporters, who he acknowledged had been let down by poor results. Secondly, club staff, some of whom he said had been emotional in meetings on Monday as they learnt of the changing of the guard at the last-placed joint-venture team.

The third object of Lancaster’s attention was not addressed with as much affection.

“There has been a lot of media coverage over the Dragons these past few weeks,” Lancaster told a news conference in Wollongong.

“A lot of it absolutely deserved, some of it poor and some of it about personal agendas. I’ve been in media longer than most. Our coverage of this great game, of this great club, should be better. Readers, viewers and listeners do deserve better.”

Lancaster did not elaborate on which journalists or media identities he was referring to in terms of his claim of personal agendas.

But for those who have followed commentary around Flanagan and the Dragons during the past year, the mind may well have turned to one prominent on-air personality and network.

Braith Anasta, the host of Fox Sports’ NRL 360 and a player manager, had been a vocal critic of Flanagan, as recently as a fortnight ago saying halves Lachlan Ilias, Jonah Glover, Lyhkan King-Togia and Daniel Atkinson had “all gone backwards” at the Dragons while the coach had kept picking his son Kyle.

Ilias, who is one of Anasta’s clients, was perceived to have been hung out to dry by Flanagan during a press conference after a defeat to South Sydney early last season, and was dropped after seven games in first grade, never to return, before moving to the Gold Coast Titans this year.

“I try and stay out of this as much as I can,” Anasta told Fox Sports earlier this month before launching into Flanagan’s recent record with young halves.

“All of them have potential to be first-grade halves and there is only one survivor – and who is that? They have all been battered, bruised and their confidence gone.”

Anasta’s position as an on-air host and player agent highlights the complications around people having dual roles in the game, although he is far from the only one juggling such responsibilities and has publicly disclosed that he and Flanagan don’t get on.

The Dragons’ dissatisfaction with some coverage is said to be broader than particular individuals and outlets.

But Anasta said on Monday night’s NRL 360 program that Lancaster needed to get his “head out of the sand”.

“I’m a big boy. I think it’s a convenient narrative that Andrew Lancaster is pushing to try and smother his own poor leadership and decisions that he’s made the last couple of years,” Anasta said. “To try and point his finger at the media, and me indirectly, I thought, was weak as piss.”

As chief executive of regional broadcaster WIN Corporation and a board member of Nine Entertainment, the owner of this masthead, Lancaster is well qualified to comment on the media.

He represents billionaire Bruce Gordon’s 50 per cent interest in the Dragons, as well as the 97-year-old’s 26.3 per cent stake in Nine, and spoke about the club’s “duty of care” to Flanagan and others as he fronted reporters on Monday.

The outgoing coach had shown signs of strain after coming under intense scrutiny recently.

“This is a great sport – it’s great when it’s going well,” Lancaster said.

“It’s really tough when it’s not, and the impact not just of the results and the performance – there is enough pressure put on people in that regard – but the impacts of media, the impacts of social media haven’t been great.”

Whether Lancaster and his board like it or not, though, NRL clubs live and die by results.

When a team loses 11 in a row, the commentary will be searing.

In the Dragons’ case, Flanagan’s good relationship with many in the media softened the blow, apart from a few voices.