NRL 2020: Kyle Flanagan unfairly blamed as Sydney Roosters’ three-peat dream fails
As if replacing Cooper Cronk wasn’t challenging enough, Kyle Flanagan is now under pressure to retain his spot ahead of teen prodigy Sam Walker. But not even the young gun Walker can walk into the Roosters and take them straight to another premiership.
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Kyle Flanagan is being unfairly blamed as the reason the Sydney Roosters failed in their quest for a premiership three-peat.
What everyone seems to be overlooking is the X-factor missing from the Roosters’ roster for most of this season.
That’s Victor Radley.
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As if taking over from one of the best halfbacks we’ve ever seen in Cooper Cronk wasn’t a big enough challenge, Flanagan also came into a side that lost the best ball-playing lock in the game in round six.
On Friday night they were also without Lindsay Collins, who was their best forward against Penrith the week earlier, while Siosiua Taukeiaho didn’t last the game.
And it’s not as if they got flogged by Canberra.
Yet the talk now is that Flanagan will be under huge pressure to keep his place in the team next year with the challenge coming from boom teenager Sam Walker.
Now Walker is a player with enormous potential and all indications are he will be a superstar in years to come.
But the reality is that he is only 18 and yet to play a single NRL game.
So if people really think he could walk straight into a team like the Roosters and just take up where Cronk left off they’re kidding themselves.
It takes years for the great playmakers to develop.
So let’s not burden Walker with the same unfair expectations that have been thrown at Flanagan.
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When you buy a 21-year-old halfback with such limited experience as Flanagan had when he arrived from Cronulla, you get what you get.
Cronk made the point on Fox Sports on the weekend when defending Flanagan that “speaking from my own experience, I was nowhere near my end product at 21 years of age.
“This kid has played less than 40 games of first grade (Flanagan has actually played 29 games), he’s holding his gloves up and fighting every inch for it.
“In three or four years’ time, we’ve seen the development of Nathan Cleary, there’s no doubt that young Flanagan can improve and improve to the next level that he wants to and be a very influential player in this competition.”
Yet you could sense at Trent Robinson’s post match media conference that there is going to be plenty of soul searching in the coming weeks.
Flanagan still has a year to run on his contract but there is obviously pressure on him.
And no doubt a lot of it is coming from young Walker because he is the most talented halfback coming through at any club.
But what you’d almost guarantee is that Flanagan is going to be a better player next season simply because of the experience.
I actually think the Roosters’ top priority should be putting an insurance plan in place in case something was to go wrong with Luke Keary.
And they could do worse than go out and sign a seasoned playmaker like Benji Marshall or Kieran Foran just for the short term.
But don’t forget next year they’ll also get Radley back, and that’s going to take enormous pressure off whoever is playing in the halves.