St George Illawarra will more than likely field a stronger line-up in 2025 with the addition of tried and true veterans, despite the loss of their skipper.
But are they rebuilding for a long-term future or getting better for the next couple of years, just long enough for Shane Flanagan to get a contract extension?
The answer to each question is likely both.
But it’s going to be a long process.
It’s fanciful to think any club can clean out the roster within a year or two, replace the ageing squad with blue-chip prospects and be back in the title hunt.
Canterbury took several years, three coaches and a series of roster overhauls to get back in the finals, the Knights hit rock bottom before they needed a few seasons to get back in the playoff picture and the Wests Tigers, well let’s just say that 12 years after their most recent playoff appearance, their fans are still waiting for one of these rebuilds to be the foundation for anything other than a house of cards.
Flanagan is welcoming Damien Cook and Valentine Holmes into the red and white fold next season with Clint Gutherson and possibly Josh Addo-Carr if they can get him at the right price following his sacking at the Bulldogs.
The most obvious joke doing the rounds on social media is that the Dragons are now favourites for the 2019 premiership.
Flanagan has indicated that Gutherson will slot in at fullback, sending Tyrell Sloan to the wing where his defensive deficiencies will presumably not be so much of an issue.
But that leaves a Ben Hunt-sized hole in their halves with no apparent answer after they rightfully told him to pack his bags and go as long as they didn’t have to pay him another Red V cent.
Kyle Flanagan showed he is a capable first-grader last season when he is the secondary playmaker.
After he smashed the National Youth Championship scoring record with 20 tries and 40 goals in 2017 at Cronulla, he was touted as a potential star of the future and miscast as the on-field general after being poached by the Roosters.
His old man needs to engineer at least one, likely another playmaker’s arrival in the off-season.
Storm utility Tyran Wishart is the great red and white hope but he is not even technically off contract at season’s end with Melbourne holding an option on his services for 2026.
Shane Flanagan (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
His teammate Jonah Pezet is reportedly open to a loan deal along the lines of Harry Grant’s Wests Tigers sojourn in 2020.
Although he is coming off an ACL tear, landing Pezet for a season would help St George Illawarra solve their halfback shortfall, particularly if they can only land a big-name playmaker for 2026 onwards.
The 21-year-old has long been viewed as a potential long-term NRL-level halfback and has shown enough in his 10 Storm appearances to suggest that when he’s fully fit, he is better than a mere understudy waiting in the wings for Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes.
Now that Braydon Trindall has locked in his extension, the Dragons have identified his teammate, Cronulla’s find of last season, Dan Atkinson as another possible playmaker to fill their needs.
Atkinson is entering the final year of his bargain basement deal so even if the Dragons offered him half of what they had allocated in their 2025 salary cap for Hunt, it would still be a massive upgrade for the 23-year-old from Brisbane who kicked off his NRL career with one game at the Storm in 2021, represented Italy the following year before making a name for himself with 19 appearances for the Sharks last season.
Lyhkan King-Togia, who made his NRL debut late last season, is one of the few playmaking options on the St George Illawarra roster but he is only 19 so it would be an enormous ask to throw him into Hunt’s old No.7 jersey.
Despite looking like they were on track for a surprise playoff appearance in Flanagan’s first year at the helm, the Dragons faded badly in the closing rounds to end up 11th with an 11-13 record.
Kyle Flanagan celebrates with teammates after scoring. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Flanagan favoured veteran players ahead of younger talent with Sloan, centre Max Feagai, winger Christian Tuipolotu and forward Toby Couchman the only players under 24 who racked up more than 10 appearances all season.
Holmes and Cook will fill the experience void left by the departure of Hunt, Wests Tigers-bound utility Jack Bird and Eels recruit Zac Lomax.
Flanagan should be ushering in more young blood to his line-up but this is the crucial second season of his three-year contract.
He needs to build the team for the future while weighing up the practicalities of ensuring he gets another deal from club management so that he can oversee the fruits of his labour.
Fans expect improvement to be linear but it’s not always the case.
The Dragons have just come off a stabilising year and next year, particularly now Hunt’s gone, won’t necessarily be one where they break their playoff drought which stretches back to 2018.
Half the battle is the battle to strengthen their halves.
Time is running out with available options few and far between with pre-season training kicking off on the weekend.