Poisoned chalice: Flanagan may have just 12 games to prove his worth - Sydney Morning Herald
Poisoned chalice: Flanagan may have just 12 games to prove his worth
BRAD WALTER
May 25, 2010
WITH just three months to prove himself in his new job as Cronulla coach, Shane Flanagan has expressed an interest in luring Mark Gasnier to the Sharks. Flanagan, who will take over the top job from Ricky Stuart at the end of the season, has been appointed on a one-year deal with an option in the club's favour.
Cronulla chairman Damian Irvine said a decision would be made in 12 months as to whether Flanagan's contract would be extended. That would give the NSW Origin assistant and Stuart's seven-year understudy as few as 12 premiership matches to show he is worthy of a longer-term deal.
Both Irvine and Flanagan are confident he will emerge as the right man to lead the club from the mire and replicate its most recent golden era - the period between 1994 and 2001 when John Lang, now at South Sydney, was in charge.
WITH just three months to prove himself in his new job as Cronulla coach, Shane Flanagan has expressed an interest in luring Mark Gasnier to the Sharks. Flanagan, who will take over the top job from Ricky Stuart at the end of the season, has been appointed on a one-year deal with an option in the club's favour.
Cronulla chairman Damian Irvine said a decision would be made in 12 months as to whether Flanagan's contract would be extended. That would give the NSW Origin assistant and Stuart's seven-year understudy as few as 12 premiership matches to show he is worthy of a longer-term deal.
Both Irvine and Flanagan are confident he will emerge as the right man to lead the club from the mire and replicate its most recent golden era - the period between 1994 and 2001 when John Lang, now at South Sydney, was in charge.
''Over time, that was the Cronulla side that had the best smell about them as far as what Cronulla is, in terms of the character of the club, and they are always criticised for being overachievers,'' Irvine said.
''Mitch Healey took us to minor premierships and he is not a player who is a Johnathan Thurston or anything. We had back-rowers like Sean Ryan, Paul Mellor, Brett Howland. These guys were a part of minor premiership-winning sides and it was a guy who came down from Queensland with a reputation to make in John Lang that drove them there.
''We had a coach coming down here to prove himself and a team full of local juniors or people who had come to the club to debut at the club and that is where we want to get back to by bringing someone like Shane through as coach.
''We are always interested in top-class players at the club but they have to be the right type of player, and that is someone who is coming here to forge a reputation, not preserve one. It is plain and simple.''
Flanagan said Gasnier was a player he would be keen to pursue and Irvine had no problems with the rookie coach pursuing the former Dragons and Australian centre, who is keen to return to the NRL after a stint in French rugby union.
''I'd definitely be interested in Mark Gasnier,'' Flanagan said. ''He is the type of player that would take us from just being a good team every couple of weeks to being a good team every week.''
Irvine said: ''Any club would like to have Mark Gasnier. Class is class and you can't just find that anywhere.''
Flanagan said his recruitment priorities lay in the back line, with signing a top-class centre his main task. ''I go into Origin camp and I'm talking to experienced players there and they are all rapping our forwards who turn up each week so I don't think we are too far off,'' he said.
''We have got some really tough forwards, and they are all contracted long term so we aren't going to lose them. Maybe we are only one or two classy backs off being a good team.''
Skipper Trent Barrett is considering retirement at the end of the season, but Flanagan said he would be keen for him to play on next year if the former NSW Origin five-eighth was amenable to the idea.
The Sharks also have five players with get-out clauses if Stuart is no longer coach, including former Test back-rower Anthony Tupou. None is expected to take up the option.
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=...y.html&usg=AFQjCNGdCE5C8nEIDBUNUjx0vdbZTLCKIg