I don't go along with the line that "the Chooks don't want him so he must be shit". The fact is they have let many quality (ie; not shit) players go, for any number of reasons. The Chooks demand a premiership every single year, anything less than that is a total failure. That is their culture, not saying that it's a bad thing to want to win, but to arrogantly expect it every single year, even with their sombrero, is unrealistic. Particularly with the NRL rules designed to prevent one club monopolising the premierships. This single minded view is applied to every player and it means that they won't wait, they only want players who will guarantee a championship next year. Plus it also means that they must nominate a reason for not wining and eradicate it, even if it isn't the right reason.
I don't see Flanagan as the reason, the real problem was Robinson not recognising that 20 games straight required a different approach, particularly with the ageing of his top level players. Reliable sources (several in fact) have told me that he flogged the crap out of them during the Covid break, which was always going to lead towards late season burn out. Basically they had 2 pre seasons this year. Which also resulted in some injuries due to player fatigue. Too late he realised that he had farked up, then tried to rest players and even brought in SBM as desperate measure to instil some life into a rapidly fading team.
Flanagan wasn't the problem at the Chooks, it was Robinson, but that just won't do, so the Chooks media machine spins into action and passes the blame on to Flanagan. When that doesn't work, which it won't, they will then try to spin another into the blame game ............ (fill in the blanks while waiting for them to nominate who the next victim is).
Go Dogs
