Dragons assistant Shane Flanagan has quashed suggestions that Wayne Bennett will return to the club, potentially as soon as next season.

Despite being contracted to the Rabbitohs until the end of 2021, the seven-time premiership mentor has been linked to a St George Illawarra homecoming.

The Dragons' 0-2 start to the season has heaped pressure on coach Paul McGregor, however, Flanagan said the club is sticking by their man.

โ€œIโ€™d be very surprised. The club is 100 per cent behind Paul McGregor, heโ€™s doing a really good job. We didnโ€™t get off to a great start but who knows what the rest of the season holds,โ€ he said on Fox League on Wednesday night.

โ€œThe club is really united and working really hard from top to bottom and Iโ€™d be really surprised if that was on the clubโ€™s agenda, especially at the moment.

โ€œWeโ€™re all working hard and heโ€™s working harder than everyone else and to think that theyโ€™re going to have a coach change in this period of time is way off the mark.โ€

Flanagan also spoke about the difficulty of replacing Newcastle-bound Tyson Frizell under the current circumstances.

โ€œThe trouble with at the moment, weโ€™re in a holding pattern,โ€ he said.

โ€œThereโ€™s no recruitment going on, thereโ€™s no training going on, and Iโ€™m sure Paul and the recruitment staff have got their head around possible people that we could recruit to the club next year.

โ€œAnd letโ€™s be honest, heโ€™ll be hard to replace. Heโ€™s an Origin and Test player.

โ€œTheyโ€™re just not out there to grab and we might have to get a younger one and hope that he develops into a Tyson Frizell but Iโ€™m sure the club is thinking about whatโ€™s next.โ€

2 COMMENTS

  1. It was never going to happen. Someone from the Daily Telegraph posted an article recently about Wayne Bennett returning to the Dragons, and imo it was nothing but an attempt to destabilise the Red V.

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