Crawley Files: Adam Reynolds and Kyle Flanagan ride highs and lows of reality of life in NRL’s toughest job

Adam Reynolds already plays the toughest position in the NRL, but his impending move to Brisbane is sure to make it even harder. Paul Crawley reveals why.

Bulldogs NRL player Kyle Flanagan breaks down at the mid-week press conference, when asked about his Dad's advice after he was benched last weekend. Source - Fox League

Who has rugby league’s toughest job — the NRL head coach or the chief playmaker?

Kevvie Walters or Adam Reynolds?

Trent Barrett or Kyle Flanagan?

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Kyle Flanagan broke down during a press conference earlier this week.

While coaches often get the bulk of the sympathy, you could well argue the case for the bloke who wears the No.7 jumper on the back of what we’ve seen again this week.

Because not only does he have the responsibility of being the main conduit of the coach’s game plan, he has to be smart and skilful, but equally tough and resilient. Not only to take the knocks coming at him on the field, but off it as well.

And while the coach can sometimes hide behind excuses, legitimate or otherwise, there is simply nowhere for the playmaker to hide when results don’t stack up.

Which brings us to Flanagan’s public breakdown this week when the Bulldogs sent him out emotionally naked to front the media on Tuesday, just hours before he was set to be dropped. A 22-year-old halfback, not yet 40 games into his career, now on the verge of becoming this club’s latest scapegoat.

Meanwhile, South Sydney’s premiership-winning skipper is about to take up a rich $2.25 million offer over three years to try and turn around Brisbane’s fortunes.

What this means for Reynolds is that from this day forward we will all question whether it will backfire on the Broncos in years to come if the soon-to-be 31-year-old doesn’t repay them with a premiership, and this will be the case up until the day he retires.

I’d argue Reynolds is worth every cent because he’s the best credentialed halfback on the open market, regardless of his age.

Adam Reynolds is heading to Brisbane where the pressure to perform will be extreme.

In fact, Reynolds has rarely given any indication since he has become the Rabbitohs’ go-to game manager that he doesn’t handle the heat, even though he has had to wear the criticism of six-time grand final winning halfback (from nine attempts) Cooper Cronk — that he has failed in his responsibility to take Souths past the preliminary final in the past three years.

Now Cronk, with all his premiership rings, has earned his right to an opinion. But his analysis is proof that no matter what halfbacks may have done over the course of their career, it always comes back to how they rated in their last game, and the criticism almost always rides on the result.

When Cronk made that assessment, Reynolds was coming off a finals loss to Penrith — even though he almost turned the game with what could have been a match-defining 40/20 kick when the Rabbitohs were chasing down the Panthers late and Reynolds overstepped the 40m line by centimetres. The final score was 20-16. Three tries each.

Ultimately those few centimetres may have been the difference between triumph and failure.

And the Panthers record being 25 wins from 27 rather than 26.

It proves what a fine line rugby league’s versions of the NFL quarterback have to tread.

Flanagan is only at the start of that journey, and the jury is out on whether he is going to one day have a resume anything like Reynolds.

The fact that he is the son of a premiership-winning coach only draws more attention and pressure to Flanagan. He would have known what he inherited, not that it makes it any easier for a player so early in his career.

Flanagan sits forlornly on the sidelines after being hooked by Trent Barrett.

Yet this week when we saw the Bulldogs number seven, two days after being ‘hooked’ by Barrett, break down when he was prodded and poked by the media, and you couldn’t help but feel for him.

To send him out to do this interview on the same day he was to be told of his fate didn’t sit well with me at all – even though I understand the position the Bulldogs inadvertently found themselves in after already scheduling an ‘open day’ media session where all squad members are supposed to be made available.

I’m not saying it is not Barrett’s right to pick any team he sees fit, and few would argue Flanagan’s form doesn’t warrant being dropped.

But I just thought the Bulldogs had hung him out to dry given no halfback in the game would make them a winning side at this minute.

Whether it was Reynolds or Daly Cherry-Evans or Nathan Cleary.

Cherry-Evans himself was going through his own dramas earlier this year before Tom Trbojevic returned from injury — and had to wear speculation Manly were trying to offload him to Brisbane.

Now Manly’s $10 million man is suddenly no longer the target but about to be retained for life.

Sam Walker is sure to face bumps in the road.

Jakob Arthur is set to make his Eels debut.

The jury is out on Mitchell Moses.

Luke Brooks is facing a rough time.

You talk about the rollercoaster of being the chief playmaker.

Newcastle have lost four of their last five and the narrative is they need Mitchell Pearce back, the most maligned player of the last 20 years.

Ben Hunt would know exactly how they feel after carrying the burden of that dropped ball in extra time of the 2015 grand final, to being St George Illawarra’s $1 million man who until this season has been under fire constantly.

And it goes on and on … Tom Dearden and Brodie Croft, Chad Townsend and Jake Clifford, Ash Taylor (until moved to five-eighth) and Luke Brooks. Young Jakob Arthur is about to get a taste of it at Magic Round (although he’ll be wearing the six), while Eels fans will debate until the cows come home whether Mitchell Moses will ever be the halfback to take them to their first premiership in 35 years.

Right now Roosters young gun Sam Walker can do no wrong. But as sure as the sun comes up tomorrow, Walker’s time will come to face that one character building or spirit-breaking moment like the one Flanagan faced this week.

And what we have to accept is that not everyone can be as good or as tough as Andrew Johns. Or Peter Sterling who won two Dally M Medals and two Rothmans Medals during the years Parramatta went from a great dynasty to 10 straight seasons of missing the finals.

But by virtue of the number they wear and the public and media focus they have to weather, the expectation and responsibility has perhaps never been greater.

Yes, they all get well paid, but it sure comes at a cost.

Originally published as Crawley Files: Adam Reynolds and Kyle Flanagan ride highs and lows of reality of life in NRL’s toughest job