‘I’ve never had a player fail a medical’: Flanagan disappointed by Volkman situation as Dragons coach confirms starting five-eighth for round one

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan hopes the Ronald Volkman contract debacle will lead to changes in the future to better protect players as the young half faces an uncertain future in the game after a shoulder injury cost him a deal with the Red V.

Volkman was released from the final two years of his contract with the Warriors to return to Australia where he was on the verge of signing a 12-month deal with the Dragons.

But a medical test showed that he needed a shoulder reconstruction to repair an old injury which would end his 2024 season without him having officially lodged a contract with the NRL.

It’s a brutal turn of events for the young man who will likely have to pay his own medical bills given he was never officially a part of the Dragons squad despite having already started training with them.

“I think something could come of this for the better,” Flanagan said.

“In the end, player welfare is what we’re all about.

“From a Dragons perspective, we had the most welfare and care. We did all the testing that we could.

“Maybe some of the on-field testing we did with him should have been done behind closed doors, but what’s the difference? We still found out that there was something going on in his shoulder and we did all the medical tests that we needed to do to determine that.”

Flanagan was set to start Volkman in the halves, but his round one plans have drastically changed after going through something he’d never seen in 20 years of coaching.

“I’m disappointed for the young bloke because he’s going to have to have surgery,” he said from the club’s Wollongong training base on Thursday.

“We were hoping he was going to have a big year for us so from a selfish perspective, I’m disappointed for the club, but for Ronald, it’s shattering news for him.

“I’ll leave it to the club to sort out the other side of things.

“The facts are that he hurt himself when he was at the Warriors and he needs surgery. We just need to fill the gaps in somewhere.

“I don’t want to point fingers at clubs, but in my 20 years doing this job, I’ve never had a player fail a medical, so it’s a strange one.”

The Volkman setback came on the heels of Junior Amone being deregistered by the NRL, which means Kyle Flanagan will now start at five-eighth after originally being brought to the club to come off the bench.

It could be a blessing in disguise for the Dragons who have lacked stability in the position, with Flanagan set to ease the load on Ben Hunt who has carried the team for far too long.

“Down the track he might turn into a nine, but at the moment he’s going to play six for us,” Flanagan said of his son.

“They’ve been really good together and I think Ben has felt that as well because it’s taken a lot of pressure off him as well.

“If you look at the Dragons over the last couple of years, you’d get to the last tackle and people would ask ‘where’s Ben Hunt?’ because that’s where everything was centred around.

“That’s not the case anymore so I think Ben has felt a lot of weight lifted off his shoulders in that department because Kyle’s strengths are organisation and doing his job while Ben’s is his running game which he’s freed up to do now.”

Hunt’s future has been a talking point for the past few months, but he’s looking forward to working with Flanagan as the club confirmed that Squadron Energy will become the major partner of the NRL and NRLW teams in 2025.

“He’s a very different player to Junior and the other guys who have been there,” the skipper said.

“He’s more of a controlling player who knows how to get a forward pack around the field and play high percentages. That’s something we need.

“It’s a fresh start for him here and there’s no pressure on him. He can just come in and do his job and enjoy his footy again.”