Ben Hunt embarrassed by Shane Flanagan spray in Dragons loss to Eels, Kevin Walters Broncos problem, analysis, Paul Crawley column – MASHAHER

Did Shane Flanagan just give Ben Hunt permission to negotiate with rival NRL clubs for next season before our eyes?

It will be a shock if Hunt is still at the Dragons in 2025 after the public bake he copped from his coach in the wake of the upset loss to Parramatta.

Make no mistake, Flanagan is no fool.

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Yes, the Dragons coach was well within his rights to give Hunt a spray after such a disappointing performance from the skipper and chief playmaker in a match where the team’s top eight fate was riding on the outcome.

But what’s got me beat is why would Flanagan choose to do it right in front of the dressing room cameras?

Unless, of course, it was Flanagan’s specific plan to embarrass his captain out of the club.

I can’t remember an NRL coach giving it to his captain and marquee man the way Flanagan gave it both barrels to Hunt in such full public view?

How Flanagan and Hunt move forward after this will be interesting to watch unfold.

Hunt has made no secret previously of his desire to return home to play out his career with a Queensland NRL club.

That’s now seven seasons at the Dragons for one finals appearance way back in 2018.

In that period Hunt has probably earned the best part of $8m in salary.

Think of the heat Luke Brooks copped at Wests Tigers for years for consistently failing to guide his team into the play offs.

Hunt doesn’t face a fraction of the scrutiny.

No question, Hunt is a hell of a footballer, and rarely goes out and doesn’t try his heart out.

He also leads the NRL this year in try assists.

But the Dragons attack just hasn’t clicked around him.

While Hunt has proven year after year what an outstanding dummy half he is at Origin level, the Dragons have bought Damien Cook to play hooker next year.

Hunt turns 35 next year and it might be time for both parties to give themselves a fresh outlook.

SMACKED OF A COACH OUT OF HIS DEPTH

Kevin Walters can’t have it both ways.

One week Walters tells the world: “There is no if, we’re going to make the finals”.

Then he takes offence to a legitimate question from Courier Mail NRL reporter Travis Meyn during a car crash media conference following the Broncos’ embarrassing 40-6 loss to Wayne Bennett’s Dolphins.

Seriously, as if the Broncos’ season hasn’t been bad enough.

Now Kevvie is challenging journos to answer their own questions about what’s going wrong at his club.

Walters needs to get a handle on his emotions if he is going to stay on as the Broncos’ long-term coach.

While Bennett once again showed what a coaching genius he is to have his team primed for what was such a huge game for both clubs, Walters could not have handled the occasion any worse.

It smacked of a coach in charge of one of the NRL’s biggest brands completely out of his depth.

There is no way the Broncos would dare sack Walters at the end of this season after making the grand final last year given the backlash the club would cop from the old boys.

But Walters now needs to have the team firing to start 2025 or things could get ugly very quickly, just like they did for Brad Arthur this year after he went from coaching the Eels to the 2022 grand final to missing the finals.

Everyone also understands Walters wears his heart on his sleeve, and it is one of the reasons he is such a loved and respected member of the NRL community.

But honestly, he’s been around long enough to know better than putting on a public hissy fit like when it wasn’t just the journo but everyone in the game wanting to know what has gone wrong at the Broncos this season.

WHY BRONCOS SHOULD GO ‘CAP IN HAND’ BACK TO IKIN

People talk about the impact the departure of players like Herbie Farnworth, Tom Fleger and Kurt Capewell has had on the Broncos.

I’ll throw in a left field contender for Brisbane’s biggest loss in the last two years – Ben Ikin.

Seriously, the Broncos should go cap in hand back to Ikin to try and get him back to the club.

Ikin resigned last year as general manager of football because he didn’t see eye to eye with Walters, while he had his powers stripped because this was supposed to be Kevvie’s football department to take charge of.

The Broncos would kill to have a straight shooter like Ikin back in the joint now to add some much-needed footy IQ.

CLINT EASTWOOD v KALYN NRL’S LATEST GRUDGE MATCH

Now to Wayne Bennett’s next grudge match.

Move over Kevvie, and in flies Kalyn Ponga from the top turnbuckle.

Hot on the heels of pulling down Walters’ pants in the battle of Brisbane, now Bennett confronts some old demons in Newcastle in the shape of long-suffering Knights fans and the NRL’s reigning Dally M medallist.

What a cracker it is going to be on Sunday when the Dolphins take on the Knights with the winner to take all to secure the final spot in this year’s finals series.

The NRL couldn’t have scripted it any better after what we saw at Suncorp when the Dolphins hammered the Broncos 40-6, backed up in Newcastle where Ponga led the Knights to a convincing 36-14 win over the Titans.

Plenty of Novocastrians still haven’t forgiven the supercoach for leaving the club after the Nathan Tinkler experiment exploded in everyone’s face back in 2014.

But the other layer to this blockbuster relates to Bennett’s failed attempt to poach Ponga back in 2022.

Remember, at the time Bennett was on the hunt for a marquee man for the NRL’s newest franchise when he booked a room at the swish Star of the Sea resort at Terrigal on the Central Coast and invited Ponga to join him.

My understanding of that meeting was that Bennett was putting on his best Clint Eastwood impersonation, telling Ponga in no uncertain terms that he had to make a decision if he wanted to be a “rock star” or continue to act like the “cool dude”.

Bennett’s bluntness was said to shock Ponga, who basically left the meeting intent on proving him wrong.

Ponga said at the time: “I just don’t think his impression of the club is what I think it is here.

“I walked away from that saying there are a lot of people working hard at the Knights, I am challenging myself, the boys are challenging me.”

Don’t tell me both Bennett and Ponga won’t be motivated for this.

WHO’S BAGGING BELLYACHE NOW?

Is anyone criticising Craig Bellamy for resting a stack of players against the Cowboys after the round from hell when it comes to injuries across the NRL.

Think Tom Trbojevic, Sam Walker, Victor Radley and Brandon Smith on the back of Nathan Cleary’s recent shoulder injury.

You can never predict what is going to happen in any game of rugby league.

But Bellamy’s decision to do what he did was well and truly vindicated given the Storm had already wrapped up the minor premiership and now looked primed for their charge into the play offs.

Why take a risk when you don’t have to?

RICKY’S HATERS CAN’T DENY RAIDERS’ SPIRIT

Ricky Stuart can take a bow for the way the Raiders finished the season with courageous back-to-back wins over the Panthers and Roosters.

You look at the Raiders’ squad and match it up not just against the star-studded Roosters or Panthers, but against every team above them on the ladder as well as many of the teams below them.

Even Stuart’s haters would have to concede the Raiders have over-achieved to finish where they are on the ladder despite it now taking a miracle for them to play finals.

Copper Cronk said in Fox League commentary that win would have to stack up for pure courage against the best of the best Stuart has been involved in as a coach or a player, after playing 20 minutes a man down with Elliott Whitehead having two stints in the sin bin.

The Raiders have some exceptional young talent on the rise and they will be an even better team next year.

JOHNSON’S EXIT ONE FOR THE AGES

Shaun Johnson will have some wonderful memories to take away from his career.

But what an unbelievable final chapter the Warriors’ legend wrote against his former club Cronulla.

Down 22-4 at halftime, Johnson turned back the clock to get his team back in the game before producing a final play miracle to put Dallin Watene-Zelezniak over in the corner with a freakish cut out pass.

Johnson deserves to be remembered alongside Stacey Jones and Benji Marshall as the greatest playmakers the Kiwis have ever produced.

ALWAYS NEXT YEAR FOR EELS’ UNDERACHIEVER

Wouldn’t Parramatta fans love to see Dylan Brown play like he did against the Dragons every week?

I did an interview with Brad Arthur late last year where he challenged Brown to step up and prove he deserved to be rated alongside the best five-eighths in the game.

The sacked Eels coach said at the time: “He has the ability in my eyes – and this is not putting pressure on him – to be one of the best players in our competition.

“And before he got suspended last season (in 2023) he was one of the best players. He was having a massive influence on games. And he is still going to grow into it, but it is time for him now to assert himself as one of the best sixes in our competition.”

If we are being fair dinkum Brown left Parra fans feeling a flat again this year.

But his performance in the win over the Dragons once again shows what the 24-year-old is capable of.

Like the saying has gone at Parra since 1986, maybe next year.

DOGS’ GUILTY OF READING OWN HYPE?

Were the Bulldogs guilty of getting ahead of themselves against the Sea Eagles on Friday night?

The moment Reed Mahoney fist pumped in the air after scoring the opening try had me thinking so.

It was like Mahoney had just scored the winning try in the grand final.

The irony was Mahoney scored off a near identical Josh Addo-Carr play near the end of the game but his celebrations were much more reserved given the game was gone.

Every team and every player can get guilty of reading their own press at times.

It might turn out to be a perfectly timed reality check ahead of the finals for the Bulldogs who get their inspirational skipper Stephen Crichton back for the final round against the Cowboys.

HOPOPATE READY TO FILL TURBO VOID

There is not a more exciting young player in the NRL than Manly’s teenage flyer Lehi Hopoate.

Throw in Lachlan Galvin, Ethan Strange, Jack Bostock, Fletcher Sharpe, Sua Faalogo … Hopoate has the potential to be the best of the lot.

And the untimely injury to Tom Trbojevic has potentially opened the door for Hopoate to take over the Sea Eagles’ No 1 jumper heading into the finals.

This 19-year-old is so fast, so skilful and so composed, he looks like he’d handle it on his ear, as Daly Cherry-Evans pretty much said after the match.

No question Turbo’s fitness is the key to this.

But young Hopoate just plays like nothing would phase him.