News Flanagan opens up on Potter’s influence at Bulldogs as coaching call looms

Howie B

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I am certainly not a Flanno supporter. He obviously has limitations in his game.

But there are 2 things I am pretty confident of :

1. There is a major shortage of halfbacks out there that are attainable unless we pay massive overs ;

2. Despite his limitations he tries his absolute guts out there every time he plays. His defence and his attitude is old school bulldog quality.

I hope he continues to improve. If he doesn’t then he gets moved on but I do admire the resilience he shows
 

CrittaMagic69

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The guy averages 1 kick and 1 run a game. We can sometimes go a whole half before we even remember he's out there on the field.

He's just riding the wave looking better than he is thanks to Burton - and he knows it. He's shown nothing to make me consider extending him beyond his current contract.

I'm actually upset someone like Bailey Biondi-Odo isn't in there at the moment playing 7. We'd be running even better and his development would excel times a million as a result.
He attempted 3 kicks against the Knights. One was easily defused in goal and resulted in a 7 tackle set, another was about a 40-50m clearing kick and the other he didn't actually end up kicking and threw about half a metre over Jake's head.

Flanagan's game has been stripped all the way back back and a few of us have been of the opinion for a while. He's focusing on effort plays, defence, support and seems to be doing an okay job of organising. He has been looking to run a bit more lately but still needs to improve a hell a lot more to even mention a contract extension.

BBO isn't anywhere near ready, defensively he's poor and he's still all over the place with the ball. He did seem to have a decent couple of weeks in reserves where he wasn't as erratic but that was mostly with Wakeham steering the ship. I'm not sure we would be any better off with him right now.
 

cookieman909

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I think the kid has shown a lot of determination and guts to get back to where he is. I’d like to see him next season after a pre season with Burto, and see a spine next year of Averillo, Burton, Flanagan and Mahoney.

He will benefit also from Mahoney service. There was a point in the game on Sunday where people bagged him for the shit pass to Averillo above his head who dropped it. Not one mention about JMK taking an age to get it to Flanagan from DH. The defence rushed Flanagan, causing the erratic pass. I think he can continue to improve.
 

SPEARTAKVIDREFS

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We are gonna be stuffed if Burton is ever out for a period of time with injury.
JAC provided for a better kicking game last weekend than our 7.
Ive seen 4 different kickers in a game with Melbourne Storm. Obviously some where just short range grubber type kicks but still options and instances of element of surprise.
Avo can kick grubbers/short range but he is hit and miss with them.
Anywhos having all our eggs in the one basket isnt great.
Some say happy to stick with Flano but I think they'll have a differant view if Burto gets injured and is out several weeks.
 

chisdog

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Owe the club money? Lol where do you get such crazy ideas? I’m headin’ to upgrade city, baby.

And don’t be a predictive text narc. I have COVID head fog right now. You got what I was trying to say.
From what you have been paid compared to what you have EARNED, you owe the club heaps, baby!

Good luck with the upgrade. I hope you succeed to be a great halfback for the club but as we stand today, you are well behind.
 

chisdog

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I think the kid has shown a lot of determination and guts to get back to where he is. I’d like to see him next season after a pre season with Burto, and see a spine next year of Averillo, Burton, Flanagan and Mahoney.

He will benefit also from Mahoney service. There was a point in the game on Sunday where people bagged him for the shit pass to Averillo above his head who dropped it. Not one mention about JMK taking an age to get it to Flanagan from DH. The defence rushed Flanagan, causing the erratic pass. I think he can continue to improve.
The poor kid has been trained to be a robot halfback probably for 18 years. To have that sort of thing engrained / brainwashed into you for so long would be hard to change. Some time with Burton about eyes up footy like his combination with JAC, might teach him something.
 

Dogtime

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Flanno tries hard but has shown little over the last 3 years at roosters and dogs to convince anyone he is worthy of a contract extension. Put him in the same category as cashconverter Lewis - defence A, kicking game F-, game management F-, creativity F-, running game F-. Will never win a premiership with him in the 7 jersey.
Yeh but what do you really think? Going back over our last 4 wins or so, all under Potter, Kyle has been mentioned as one of the better players who contributed to the win. So we are winning DESPITE Flanagan?.....Sure looks to me like he's contributing.
 

Shreksno1

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Why are people's standards so low? Most of the top teams have 2 gun halves and yet Dogs fans are happy to settle for a plodder in the 7 jersey.
We're never going to be able to win a premiership unless we have a creative half who can take the pressure off Burton.
Unless we have a gun half coming through the junior ranks, I hope the Moses rumour is true....then we'd finally have a gun spine
Isn’t it the general consensus around here that Anasta was a dud ? How did we win a premiership with him then ? We don’t need to gun halves, Flannos here to stay , imho I don’t see us losing another game for a looong time
 

Powerslide

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hmmm yes he is taking the line on more and vs the knights some of those times were starting to be a little more effective.

but he needs more variety, were he passes early for early ball to his outside supports, digs into the line and gets a late pass for a running edge back rower and just trying to get in between players and get through the first line.

But his kicking game sucks balls. he needs more height on his attacking kicks. My 16 year old Son puts better attacking kicks in and he is not a half. It's not like some kicks all of them lack height any positive results from them is not because of the kick. Sure we can't expect he will kick them as good as Burton but from what he showed JAC would have a better kicking game then Flanno.

If he works on this and gets more height without sacrificing accuracy he maybe someone worth investing in. Running game has improved but still needs more work, but kicking game has not shown any improvement.
 

TwinTurbo

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Isn’t it the general consensus around here that Anasta was a dud ? How did we win a premiership with him then ? We don’t need to gun halves, Flannos here to stay , imho I don’t see us losing another game for a looong time
I don't believe that Anasta was a dud, but he wasn't voted the NRL's most overrated player a number of times for nothing. He was a decent NRL player, but I think a lot us long term Bulldog fans give him more shit than he deserves because he went to the Chooks. We lost so many players from that era to them, who were attracted by brown paper bags full of money, that it still burns to this day.


Always a Bulldog
 

ddt192

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He’s improved abit I’ll give him that but honestly his kicking game is just nonexistent. As if he hasn’t developed his short kicking game yet?
 

Family Guy

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Isn’t it the general consensus around here that Anasta was a dud ? How did we win a premiership with him then ? We don’t need to gun halves, Flannos here to stay , imho I don’t see us losing another game for a looong time
I wasn't on TK back then so I have NFI what Dogs fans thought of Anasta but for mine he was a decent player. At least he played Origin. Flanno will never be in the conversation to play origin

Yes we might be able to win a comp with a superstar 7 (I think the Bronocs did it in 2006) but since then virtually all of the premiers have had 2 good halves. When we play against the top teams, since Flanno is not a threat, all the opposition has to do is gang up on Burton and they'll shut down our attack

I hope you're right about not losing another game LOL. I think we'll be competitive against the Cowboys but I'm worried we'll concede some soft tries like we did against the Rabbitohs and we'll lose it in the last 10 minutes. I'll be stoked if I'm wrong
 

2144superman

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Sign @Flanagun long term. I can't bear another situation like the Thurston fiasco and have to sit there and watch him lead an opposition team to glory.

Furthermore, it's quite obvious Flanno should be the Blues half and captain of our state team but because of politics and favouritism, Cleary is being picked.
 

albatross

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Flanno deserves credit for hanging in there and gradually improving his game a bit, but there's no way he's a premiership half. We've wasted too many years hoping shit would turn into gold from a production line of mediocre spine players. Not having a quality half is still our biggest weakness.
 

Alan79

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The thing I wonder about with Flanagan, is how much can he improve. His path to the NRL would be considered ideal given the access to quality coaching on the way through thanks to poppa Flanagan being an NRL coach. He's obviously learned the work ethic. But at this stage plenty of NRL/Dogs fans see big areas in which he needs to improve. I personally can't comment on his progress since last year as I haven't seen him play this year. But the big question is, how high is his ceiling. Is he pretty much there, or will he develop a running game and improve his kicking under pressure?

His career depends on him convincing the coaching staff that he's not hit his peak of talent yet. Hope they make the right call with him when it's time to decide on our top choice #7 next time. He seems like he'll be needing a tow truck to remove him from the roster before his contract expires.
 

2144superman

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The thing I wonder about with Flanagan, is how much can he improve. His path to the NRL would be considered ideal given the access to quality coaching on the way through thanks to poppa Flanagan being an NRL coach. He's obviously learned the work ethic. But at this stage plenty of NRL/Dogs fans see big areas in which he needs to improve. I personally can't comment on his progress since last year as I haven't seen him play this year. But the big question is, how high is his ceiling. Is he pretty much there, or will he develop a running game and improve his kicking under pressure?

His career depends on him convincing the coaching staff that he's not hit his peak of talent yet. Hope they make the right call with him when it's time to decide on our top choice #7 next time. He seems like he'll be needing a tow truck to remove him from the roster before his contract expires.
Flanno’s clearing kicks remind me of Alfie Langers chip and chases for him self.
 

TwinTurbo

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The thing I wonder about with Flanagan, is how much can he improve. His path to the NRL would be considered ideal given the access to quality coaching on the way through thanks to poppa Flanagan being an NRL coach. He's obviously learned the work ethic. But at this stage plenty of NRL/Dogs fans see big areas in which he needs to improve. I personally can't comment on his progress since last year as I haven't seen him play this year. But the big question is, how high is his ceiling. Is he pretty much there, or will he develop a running game and improve his kicking under pressure?

His career depends on him convincing the coaching staff that he's not hit his peak of talent yet. Hope they make the right call with him when it's time to decide on our top choice #7 next time. He seems like he'll be needing a tow truck to remove him from the roster before his contract expires.
I have watched Flanagan play since primary school and he has always displayed plenty of abilities, particularly suited to half back. His junior record is pretty stellar. Until last year I have never seen him display any lack of confidence, but it was pretty obvious that he was playing very tentatively right up until Barrett resigned. It was like he was scared of doing something horribly wrong every time he touched the ball. This did not apply to defence where he went all in every single time, which he continues to do.

When he was paying NSW Cup early this season that reluctance to "play football" gradually lessoned, which is what I think Gould was trying to achieve by telling Barrett to hold him back for 4 rounds. Since being back playing NRL games that reluctance has further diminished little by little every game. Much like all of the other players this is symptomatic of the "Potter effect", where there is no doubt that he gives his players freedoms and then gives them confidence in themselves to execute those freedoms.

Obviously Flanagan has some way to go, back to what he displayed before his confidence was shot to pieces. Whether that is of high enough level for NRL remains to be seen.


Always a Bulldog
 
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