Something rotten at the core: Dragons’ decline goes deeper than Flanagan

April 25, 2026 — 5:00am

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After the semi-implosion of LIV, I don’t want to say “I told you so,” two weeks in a row – much – but I can’t help it. The Dragons, I said. They’ve completely lost their moral compass, I said. No good will come of it, I said. They’ll keep losing, I said.

My theme, dating back several years, dates the demise of the Dragons to something that went a lot deeper than just coach Shane Flanagan – who was sacked this week, after 11 successive losses, dating back to last season. For there was something rotten at the core of the Dragons, going back yonks, that no coach could fix in the short term.

“This,” I wrote back in 2021, “was the club that pursued Israel Folau long after he was a byword for whacko nutterdom and extreme homophobia; who gave Jack de Belin a $200K pay-rise on a new four-year contract while he was dealing with seriously grave rape charges. Also the club that had been so untroubled by serious allegations of sexual assault made against Jarryd Hayne from his time in America, that they went after him and that contract was only derailed when – by Hayne’s account – on the day he was to sign he was charged with the rape in Newcastle.”

And yes, I know that after three trials de Belin was not convicted, while Hayne was released on appeal over the Newcastle incident and never charged over the American allegations, and a civil suit against him over the alleged US incident was settled before trial. The point remains, as I wrote back then:

“Give me a club any day which picks on good character, which wants players who wear their jersey to be bywords for decency and good bloke-edness the way St George used to have with the likes of Mark Coyne and Brad Mackay and before that players like Craig Young, Reg Gasnier and Kevin Ryan. Right now, the Dragons seem to pick on nothing more than raw playing ability, with no reference to character, and it is a bad mistake.”

In recent times, true, the Dragons have got great men of huge character on board like Clint Gutherson, but that club has still been lost for the better part of a decade, and they completely lack old-stagers raised with the Red-V. Watching them, I have no sense of players ready to bleed for the jersey, the way Penrith players clearly do, the way Souths clearly do, and the way even Manly players do on a good day. They look like a club without a soul.

Dean Young, however, is a good choice to rebuild the whole thing. They are a club with a great heritage. They just need to find it again and pick players of character who will wear the club’s famous colours with pride.

From SMH racing department........

© The Sydney Morning Herald