I wanted to quit: Jack Bird on how his bond with Shane Flanagan saved his career

It was just one week into Jack Bird’s move from the Dragons to Cronulla when he considered quitting the game for good. Shane Flanagan’s approach forged a lifelong bond between the pair.

Nothing gets a footballer going more than when they have a coach that believes in them.

Just ask St George Illawarra centre Jack Bird.

To appreciate some of the reasoning behind Dragons coach Shane Flanagan’s shock call to pick Bird over Zac Lomax at centre to begin the season, you need to go back to a Monday morning 10 years ago.

It was the day that Flanagan saved Bird’s career – and a coach and player bond was forged forever.

“The way he handled that day was huge, because if I had my way, I would’ve gone home and who knows what I would’ve done. I may never have won a premiership,” Bird has revealed for the first time.

Bird, then 19, was just one week into his move from the Dragons to the Sharks in 2014 when he was due for Cronulla training at the water-starved playing fields of Barden Ridge, just on the edge of Menai in the Sutherland Shire.

Bird’s exit from Saints, where he was a local junior and rising star, had cut him deep.

Jack Bird is back at the Dragons, where he was a local junior. Picture: NRL Photos

Citing a torn ACL the season prior and his issues with arthritis, the Red V hierarchy offered Bird a paltry 12-month offer.

Bird didn’t care about the size of the contract. It was the one-year length that crushed him. It said to him that his boyhood club lacked faith.

So he upped and left to join the enemy, Cronulla, up the road.

“I never thought I would come back to the Dragons. Ever,” Bird said.

“They let me go at the start as a young kid, I was a junior, so I thought they might have wanted to keep me.

“And when they let me go, I was like, I’m not going to go back to that club.

“It wasn’t bad blood. It was just that I wanted to be here (Dragons) at the time. They hurt my feelings by letting me go.

“They offered me a one-year deal. I was coming off a torn ACL and I had my arthritis, but I felt like they didn’t have belief in me.

“I knew that I was going to get back and play good footy.’’

Even with the pang of rejection from Saints in his gut, Bird walked over to Flanagan standing in the middle of the Barden Ridge training field with the news.

“I rocked up and I said to him, ‘I don’t know if I want to be here, I want to go back home’,” Bird said.

Flanagan took a moment to listen to the teenager telling him he wanted out.

Bird and now-Dragons mentor Shane Flanagan won a premiership together at Cronulla. Picture: Colleen Petch

“Finally he said, listen, go home, have a week off, have a think about it and come back to me in a week and we’ll talk,” Bird said.

What Bird was struggling with was the side of footy teams that fans don’t see, but coaches like Flanagan, can.

“It was mainly because I was a young kid and I didn’t know anyone,” Bird said.

“I was around, Luke Lewis, these guys.

“When you’re a young kid, going into a first grade group and no one knows you, you kind of feel alone.

“I was pretty much training by myself because I didn’t know anyone.’’

In the week that Bird spent contemplating quitting the Sharks back at his home in Berkeley, Flanagan was busy pulling Lewis and Gallen aside.

He told them to take the new kid for coffee and to wrap an arm around the young star.

“Luke Lewis took me under his wing. He was a real good mentor for me. I became real close with all the boys after that,” Bird said.

“Looking back at that time, I was a bloody idiot asking for that release.

“I had a week off and came home and went back and I loved every minute of it.”

Bird won the premiership with the Sharks in 2016 before leaving the club in 2018 to take up a massive offer from the Broncos. Bird remembers crying in front of Flanagan and his Cronulla teammates when he informed them he was heading north.

Bird wants to cement his position in the side. Picture: Richard Dobson

“It was my decision. I just wanted to get out of Sydney and grow up a little bit,” Bird said.

“That was a good opportunity to go to Brisbane and be coached by Wayne (Bennett).

“It was very emotional to leave the Sharks. I was in tears. I didn’t want to leave, but at the time I thought it was best for me to grow-up and get out of my comfort zone.”

Injuries crippled Bird’s tenure at the Broncos, managing just 17-games in two seasons.

“At the end of the day, it obviously didn’t work out,” Bird said.

“I don’t have any regrets in life. Because if I didn’t go to Brisbane, it wouldn’t have made me who I am today.

“I’m very grateful for the life that I have, even though it didn’t work out up there.

“I’m very grateful for the game, because at times I could’ve given up. I could’ve quit. I didn’t like footy, I wasn’t enjoying footy anymore. There was a lot of pressure.”

Back under Flanagan, Bird is bouncing around Dragons training like he’s 19 again.

He’s back at the club that crushed him all those years ago, the difference being, that he’s under the coach that has backed him his entire career.

“I’m loving being back here now,” Bird said.

“That’s the main thing that has got me feeling the way I am because I have a coach that believes in me.”

Originally published as I wanted to quit: Jack Bird on how his bond with Shane Flanagan saved his career