‘I hope he gets the job’: Anthony Seibold’s ringing endorsement for Shane Flanagan as Dragons look to lock in new coach

Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold says he “hopes” assistant Shane Flanagan gets the top job at the Dragons after it was revealed the former Cronulla mentor met with St George Illawarra officials on Wednesday.

Flanagan is the favourite to take over at the Red V next year after plans to land Jason Ryles fell through when the former Roosters assistant coach turned down a lucrative four-year offer.

A decision is expected in the coming days, with 2010 premiership winners Ben Hornby and Dean Young also in the mix for the role, although Flanagan’s experience is expected to get him over the line.

Losing someone as experienced as Flanagan wouldn’t be ideal, but no one would be happier than Seibold to see his good friend get the job.

“I've spoken to ‘Flanno’ over the last week-and-a-half since that process was about to start,” he said.

“It's really important that our relationship is transparent, so Flanno’s kept me up to date with where things are at. He feels as though there’ll be a resolution sooner rather than later.

“I hope he gets the job.

“I think he's qualified to get the job, he’s obviously been a premiership-winning coach, coached eight years.

“He’s been fantastic for me, he’d be a loss to us as a club but ultimately with assistant coaches, you want them to be aspirational. I’d love to see him get an opportunity and hopefully he gets one at the Dragons.”

Flanagan was at the helm when the Sharks won their maiden title in 2016 but resigned from the role three years later after the NRL deregistered him for integrity breaches while he was suspended in 2014.

He has since worked with the Dragons and in the media, while he’s also impressed Seibold during their time together this season.

“He's been a very good sounding board to me,” the Manly coach said.

“Being an experienced coach, I feel as though you can lean on him, ‘What would you do on this occasion? What do you think about this?’ and you go away and think more about it.

“I feel any coaching staff that has an ex-head coach on staff, I think that’s a really positive thing because they’ve been through the furnace so to speak.

“They've won games, lost games, been on losing streaks and I suppose that’s the experience I bring from my last two jobs and Flanno brings that from Cronulla as well.”

If Flanagan does get the job, then there’s a real possibility he’ll leave the Sea Eagles early to start plotting for 2024 given the Dragons are at the foot of the table and need some direction since parting ways with former coach Anthony Griffin.

“It's not something we’ve spoken about or thought about, but first and foremost, he’s been very transparent about being part of the process meeting with the Dragons,” Seibold replied when asked how they’d navigate losing Flanagan during the season.

“As I said, we would miss him but I want coaches who are aspirational and I think he deserves that head coaching opportunity if it comes about. We’d have that discussion after that.

“It's something we’d need to put a little bit of thought into. There’s no point thinking about it until Flanno gets an offer and he wants to go.

“From my understanding, it was a really positive conversation that they had.

“I hope, and I'm optimistic, that he gets an opportunity there and if he does, then we’ll put some things in place to make sure there’s the least amount of disruption possible.

“Our real focus, our narrow focus is on the Dolphins tomorrow night.”