Kyle Flanagan may not have marked this Sunday's game against the Cronulla Sharks in his calendar like his father has but the St George Illawarra five-eighth is nevertheless looking forward to playing against the club where he kicked off his NRL career.
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In fact the local derby can't come quick enough for Flanagan and his Dragons team-mates, who are desperate to put in a good performance against the Sharks after being hammered by the Roosters on Anzac Day.
"It's another big occasion and I'm looking forward to another big game against Cronulla," Flanagan said.
"It's a local derby and this time I'm on the flip side. I'm looking forward to playing at Shark Park, I live around the corner.
"But I'm not looking too far ahead, we've got plenty of important training sessions until then and we are looking to bounce back."
Flanagan made his NRL debut for the Sharks in 2018 and played eight more games for the Shire club in 2019 before hooking up with the Roosters in 2020.
He played at Cronulla under his father Shane Flanagan, who guided the Sharks to a premiership win in 2016 before quitting on the eve of the 2019 season after he was deregistered by the NRL for flouting his 2014 suspension for his part in the club's peptides scandal.
Flanagan, who now coaches the Dragons, said in the press conference after St George Illawarra's Anzac Day loss to the Roosters that he couldn't wait for the clash against his former club, stating "it's been marked in the calendar for awhile".
Kyle Flanagan said he hadn't had time to think about what his father's emotions would be like heading into Sunday's battle against the Sharks.
"It's probably something I haven't thought about, I just probably had my full focus on the Anzac Day game," he said.
"It's another local derby, it's another occasion that we'll be up for. It's going to be a great battle.
"I've got a lot of mates in that Cronulla team that I played junior football and under 20s with......it's always a good night out when you get to verse your team-mates and people that you are mates with.
"But that all aside it is a local derby and I'm looking forward to that clash next Sunday."
The 11th-placed Dragons will definitely miss the services of Mosese Suli (HIA protocols) for the clash against the table-topping Sharks, who have lost just one of their seven games to date.
St George Illawarra on the other hand have won four of their eight games, and head into the Sharks clash on the back of suffering their heaviest ever Anzac Day defeat to the Roosters.
Flanagan conceded the Dragons were looking to be more consistent and string more wins moving forward.
"We'd love to know why we can't find that consistency," he said.
"It probably comes back to training, you can't drop your shoulders after you've had a win, you have to train like you have had a loss. Our focus is we are going to change this around through hard work.
"We will look at the tape, find out where it went wrong and work to fix it.
"But we've had a good month of football so we walk out of here with our chest out and head up."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
