When Shane Flanagan first got his feet under the desk at St George Illawarra, there were two players he needed to unlock: Tyrell Sloan and Zac Lomax.
Sloan had to learn there were two parts to playing fullback: knowing when and where to inject himself in attack but, more importantly, how to put his body on the line in defence.
To give the 21-year-old a harder edge, the coach wanted to dispatch him to the boxing gymnasium of his former Sharks captain, Paul Gallen, but a broken thumb suffered in last year’s Koori Knockout — and the fact Gallen is on the books at Cronulla — meant the idea was put on ice.
Instead, Sloan worked during the pre-season with sports psychs on the mental side of his game, learning to be more resilient, and the result was there for all to see in the first-round win over the Gold Coast Titans: he scored three tries and, more importantly, missed just one tackle.
Early days, of course, but he looked a different player to the one who wept in Latrell Mitchell’s arms after a heavy defeat in last year’s Charity Shield; a different player to the one who had asked for a release the year before that.
Lomax, though, is a different story. He is Flanagan’s toughest project.
Zac Lomax is the project player Shane Flanagan is trying to unlock.Credit: Getty
Sure, he smashed out 266 metres from 26 runs, scoring a try and was generally the best of the back five, who had Des Hasler’s men on the back foot at the start of each attacking set for most of the night.
But Lomax’s nose remains out of joint because he did all this from the wing, not his preferred position of centre, which isn’t even his preferred position because he’s long considered himself a fullback. It’s hard to keep up.
Why the Dragons can’t let Zac Lomax walk out the door
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11.03.2024
When Shane Flanagan first got his feet under the desk at St George Illawarra, there were two players he needed to unlock: Tyrell Sloan and Zac Lomax.
Sloan had to learn there were two parts to playing fullback: knowing when and where to inject himself in attack but, more importantly, how to put his body on the line in defence.
To give the 21-year-old a harder edge, the coach wanted to dispatch him to the boxing gymnasium of his........
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