BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

New St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan had a fairly low base to be compared to when he came into the job at the Red V at the end of 2023.

Getting two constructive words out of the former coach was like trying to bash blood from a stone with a wet sock.

Flanagan has been very forward and open with the media on what he’s trying to do with the Dragons and has done a fantastic job juggling many moving parts but vitally – he seems to have calmed his star player and halfback Ben Hunt to the point where all the talk of Hunt being released went away (mostly) and the Kangaroos International is seemingly onboard for the immediate future.

Now the media has caught on to what is now becoming a serious problem for the club and one Mr. Zac Lomax.

It’s on record that Lomax does not want to play on the wing.

Despite his push back, he’s been pretty good for the Dragons in the first two weeks, albeit in two very different looking results.

The coach himself conceded Lomax wasn’t happy with the shift despite having many weeks in pre-season to prepare and put everything into the new role.

“He’s upset that he’s not playing centre,” Flanagan told 2GB’s Continuous Call Team a few weeks ago.

“I need to pick the best 17 players.

“He’s definitely in there. He’s fine. He’d like to play centre – he will have a bit of a different role and he’s quite happy to go out there and do the best for the Dragons.”

But rugby league media smelt blood and it never helps when a player manager drip feeds a little chum into the water.

Next thing we know Lomax is linked to the Parramatta Eels.

That died down as there wasn’t much to it as the Dragons have little interest paying any portion of Lomax’s hefty salary to see him play for another club so early in the season.

Intriguingly, Flanagan conceded at the club’s Fan Forum on Monday night that Lomax, or his management, had floated Lomax to rivals.

All of which baulked at the price and nothing came of it.

The fact is a winning team shuts down lots of the outside chatter and even more of the stuff coming from within.

Unfortunately for the Dragons, after their horror outing against the Dolphins, there’s a fair chance they get rolled by the North Queensland Cowboys this Saturday in their first home match of the season.

The talk will continue.

Even more reason for Flanagan and the club to now rethink how honest and open they’ve been about all this contract talk.

It didn’t matter too much last year when Hunt’s people were pushing for a release because there wasn’t anything on the line – the season was gone.

In 2024, the Dragons are 1-1.

We’re just now about to enter the third week of the premiership and the Dragons are being drowned by speculation about Lomax’s future.

Maybe Flanagan needs to tap Hunt on the shoulder and ask him to play a dead bat to questions from the swarming media regarding Lomax.

“Zac and I, we talk a bit,” Hunt said on Wednesday.

Benji wasn’t wrong picking boom youngster Galvin but selections around him and way team played has already let other players down

“I’m aware that he does want to leave but he’s not showing that he’s unhappy and he seems like he’s enjoying himself.

“Whenever he wants advice, he knows that I’m always happy to give it.

“He’s very open, Zac, and he’ll always ask for something if he needs it.”

This is not helping.

Flanagan has done a good job so far in his new role but the season will slip quickly out of his hands if he can’t get his side focused on winning games of footy instead of talking to the media.

That includes Flanagan.

Dragons fans deserve a little less talk and way more walk.

@woodward_curtis