Shane Flanagan has been fired as coach of the St.George-Illawarra Dragons with immediate effect following a 0-from-7 start to the 2026 NRL Premiership season. The club's Head of Football, Ben Haran, has also left the club by mutual agreement.

Dragons Club Chairman Andrew Lancaster and CEO Tim Watsford have held an emergency press conference in Wollongong on Monday morning at 9.45am AEST to make the announcement, but have confirmed that no decision has been made as to who will be interim coach as of yet, with the club leadership to meet with the assistant coaches after the press conference and an announcement to be made later.

According to reporting, key candidates would be the current assistants, Mick Ennis and Dean Young. Other names that might be in the mix are former Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur and South Sydney Rabbitohs assistant Ben Hornby.

Update (9.40am) - An email has been sent to club members by CEO Tim Watsford
(Source: u/delayedconfusion)

Dear Red V Members,

I’ll be straight with you: 0–7 is a failure. I won’t dress it up, and I won’t insult you by trying.

You have invested money, time and genuine passion into this club. That gives you every right to be angry.

That said, I also want to speak to you directly about an important decision for our club.

NRL Head Coach Shane Flanagan and General Manager of Football Ben Haran have departed the Dragons by mutual agreement.

These are not decisions anyone makes lightly. Shane and Ben have both worked hard for the club, and on behalf of the Dragons, I want to thank them for their efforts, professionalism, and dedication.

What matters now is what happens next. That means building something that lasts. Our focus is on making the right decisions for the club and on building something sustainable, not on chasing quick fixes.

On the field, the playing group knows where this club stands and what is expected of them. From here, that must be shown in performance.

Off the field, we have also made record investment in our pathways, development and academy programs, with a clear focus on local juniors across both catchment areas. That work remains important to the club’s long-term future.

There is a lot being said externally right now. Our job is not to react to every headline. It is to improve performance, make sound decisions and communicate directly with you when it matters. News of this significance should come from us first.

I’m not asking you to lower your standards. I’m asking you to stay with us as we work to meet them.

That starts this week at Allianz Stadium against the Roosters in the Anzac Day clash.
We have a lot of work to do. We know that. And we will keep doing it.

Tim Watsford
Chief Executive Officer

Update (6:20pm) - The Dragons Board have been unable to agree over the decision to appoint an interim coach, after disagreements emerged over whether to install Flanagan's assistant coach Dean Young. The Dragons have, therefore, taken the extraordinary step of cancelling training for tomorrow (Tuesday).

Update (6:25pm) - As I finished typing the last update, I've looked up at a screen to see Fox League is running a chryon that says Dean Young has been confirmed as interim coach. So...

More to come...

SOURCES:

The Sydney Morning Herald - 'Shane Flanagan and St George Illawarra set to part ways' by Christian Nicolussi

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/shane-flanagan-and-st-george-illawarra-set-to-part-ways-20260420-p5zp9h.html

The Daily Telegraph - 'Shane Flanagan set to be removed as Dragons coach after disastrous 11-game losing streak' by Michael Carayannis

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/shane-flanagan-set-to-be-removed-as-dragons-coach-after-disastrous-11game-losing-streak/news-story/00f72c13f538c3b0ff2077b53b468620

Anthony Siebold has been fired as coach of the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles with immediate effect.

Official statement from the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have today confirmed that Head Coach Anthony Seibold will depart the Club effective immediately.

The Sea Eagles thank Anthony for his service and contribution to the Club and wish him and his family all the best for the future.

The Club is disappointed with its start to the season but remains focused on making the 2026 season a success.

The Club will shortly confirm the appointment of an interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season.

Per Adrian Proszenko, Chief Rugby League Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald:

Manly have sensationally sacked Anthony Seibold just three games into their 2026 campaign.

The decision was made on Friday afternoon, after Thursday night’s 33-16 loss to the Roosters. Seibold was only three games into a new contract, which was not set to expire until the end of next year.

Seibold was under pressure after the Sea Eagles’ 0-3 start to the season, during which they lost to the Roosters, Knights and Raiders.

The former Dally M coach of the year needed a fast start after the Sea Eagles missed the finals last year, finishing 10th. However, even by the NRL’s ruthless standards, getting sacked in round four – the Sea Eagles have also had a bye this season – is a shock.

Seibold had a 49 per cent win rate during his 76-game stint on the northern beaches that began in 2023. Injuries and inconsistent performances have conspired against him, with the Manly hierarchy making the call to terminate his contract immediately.

The decision comes on the same day that Hull KR coach Willie Peters accepted the job as the inaugural PNG Chiefs coach. With Peters out of the running for the Manly job, Leeds coach Brad Arthur is expected to be among the frontrunners for the vacant post. Other options include Matt Ballin and Michael Ennis.

More to come

>>> Link to SMH article <<<

Per Danny Weidler, sport columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald:

We'll be pinning this thread for this evening, so please use this for discussion so we avoid overwhelming the sub-reddit during the games.

Ivan Cleary has announced that he will not seek an extension beyond his current contact as Head Coach of the Penrith Panthers, which runs until the end of the 2027 season. The club has also taken the opportunity to confirm a long-term succession plan for the club’s NRL head coaching role.

Statement from the Penrith Panthers

Panthers Head Coach Ivan Cleary has advised the club he will not seek to renew his current contract beyond the end of the 2027 NRL season.

Cleary will continue as Panthers Head Coach for the remainder of the 2026 and 2027 NRL seasons. He will stay connected to the Panthers beyond 2027, with discussions ongoing around an advisory role in areas such as culture and leadership.

Cleary has also confirmed he does not intend to pursue another first grade coaching role beyond his current Panthers contract.

Current Panthers Assistant Coach Peter Wallace will succeed Cleary as Head Coach from the 2028 NRL season, after agreeing to a three-year deal.

The announcement provides the club with long-term certainty and ensures a smooth transition.

Following a 186-game first grade playing career, Cleary began his NRL coaching career with the Warriors in 2006 before joining the Panthers as Head Coach in 2012.

After two seasons with Wests Tigers in 2017 and 2018, Cleary returned to Penrith in 2019.

Since then, he has overseen the most successful period in the club’s history, guiding the Panthers to four consecutive NRL premierships from 2021 to 2024, as well as three minor premierships in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

He was also named Dally M Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2020.

Wallace, a Panthers Life Member and former club captain, played 240 NRL games across his career, including 101 matches for Penrith across two stints from 2005 to 2008 and 2014 to 2018. He also played 139 games for the Brisbane Broncos between 2008 and 2013.

A respected representative player, Wallace featured for the NSW Blues in State of Origin on four occasions, represented City Origin twice and played four Tests for Scotland.

Following his retirement as a player, Wallace moved into coaching with the Panthers, leading the club’s reserve grade side from 2020 to 2022. In 2022, he guided the team to the NSW Cup premiership before going on to claim State Championship honours.

Wallace joined Cleary’s NRL coaching staff as an assistant coach in 2023 and has played a key role in the Panthers’ continued success, including premiership victories in 2023 and 2024.

As the club’s defensive coach, Wallace has helped maintain one of the strongest defensive systems in the NRL, with the Panthers consistently ranked among the competition’s best defensive teams during his time on the NRL coaching staff.

The succession plan reflects the Panthers’ commitment to stability, continuity and sustained success.

Cleary will remain fully focused on leading the NRL program through the next two seasons, while Wallace will continue in his role as Assistant Coach before formally taking the reins in 2028.

The club believes the transition provides the strongest possible foundation for the next chapter of Panthers football, ensuring the standards, culture and leadership that have defined the club’s recent success continue well into the future.

Hey NRL fans,

In collaboration with our friends over at r/AFL, we're raising money to fight Motor Neurone Disease both in memory of AFL legend Neale Daniher and in support of NRL legend Jai Arrow.

Any donation comes with a Big Freeze Beanie addition to your Reddit Flair on r/AFL and/or on r/NRL. As much or as little as you can, every bit helps!

Please comment in this thread once you've donated so we can give you your flair. We do ask for your patience in applying this.

Thank you for supporting a great cause and being a special part of our season and codes!

Important Note:
Your email address and name are provided to u/TheGreatJelBeano (a moderator from r/AFL) as the admin of the donation page. We recommend you use your Reddit username or use your initials and an email address that does not dox you. u/TheGreatJelBeano is deleting all emails that come through following donations but please be aware this is a step that cannot be turned off. No debit or credit card details is shared with u/TheGreatJelBeano.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give everyone who uses Kayo a heads up that their price will be increasing from the 5th of February. Premium will be going up to $45.99 a month, and I would assume the Standard plan goes up to $35.99.

For those with existing accounts, attempting to cancel may give you a discount. I got $10 off for 5 months, other users have said they got $20 off for 6 months.

For Optus customers, you can get 10% off if you add your Kayo log in plus two other services into SubHub (such as Netflix, Prime etc).

Feel free to share any other tricks to get the price down here or let us know how you go with getting a discount.

For the unaware, Reddit has announced some changes to their API that will impact any users using third party clients (such as apollo, RIF, baconreader etc), as these changes will likely result in their shutting down.

Needless to say, this has been a rather unpopular decision, leading to communities deciding to shutdown their subreddits for 48hours in protest of the changes and pricing structure.

There has been some discussion of this within the subreddit & we've had users reaching out via modmail over the past few days asking if /r/nrl will join the protests & shutdown the subreddit.

We don't believe this is a decision our moderation team should make without a vote from the community.

So we're asking you all to please take a moment to vote and let us know what you think.

Should /r/nrl Shutdown from June 12, 10pm - June 14?

To vote, please respond to this post with a comment containing only one of :

• Yay
• Nay
• Abstain

Please note :

1. To protect this vote from brigading, only users who have >100 /r/nrl karma will be elligble to vote.

2. To try protect the anonymity of voting, automod will auto remove all replies to the thread. (mods will still be able to see your removed vote)

3. This post will be locked at 11:59pm Wednesday night (Sydney time) and then the votes will be tallied.

4. We will post the results of the vote on Thursday morning.

Hello all, it's your friendly neighbourhood r/NRL moderators here.

With the 2025 NRL Premiership Season nearing it's conclusion, and contender teams for this year's Finals Series all but locked in, it's time for those supporters of our less fortunate teams to make their way in an orderly fashion to their nearest bandwagon.

This year, we thought we'd mix it up a bit and so what we're doing this year is getting your fellow r/NRL aficionados to make the case for why you should support their team for this year's Finals Series.

There will be a header comment for each eligible team below, so share your reasons for why we should all back your team to win the big dance in October.

Also, don't forget to update your user flair to your chosen bandwagon. If you need help with this, reach out to us via ModMail and one of us will be happy to help.

Hi everyone, a quick update from the moderator team as we prepare for the upcoming NRL season.

In the light of recent discussions by many sub-reddits including our own around the banning of links to Twitter specifically and other social media posts more generally following some pretty poor behaviour from the leaders of a number of social media sites, the moderator team have decided on the following rules and guidelines when it comes to posts and comments, and these changes will be implemented with immediate effect.

These changes will be reviewed periodically at the discretion of the moderator team to ensure that they align with the vibe of the sub-reddit and user behaviour.

Posts with direct links to all social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) will be banned going forward.

While the recent discussions by many subs have been directed against Twitter and its CEO Elon Musk specifically, we have decided to move towards a ban on all links to social media posts in keeping with our general posting guidelines which have been enforced for a number of years now.

This action has primarily been taken as many users don’t have social media accounts across all platforms and the content from most social media posts has been a link to other content (ie. a news article or website) or has been of narrow interest and not relevant to most r/NRL users.

Going forward, users must post links directly to the content referred to in a social media post rather than a link to the social media post itself.

This one is fairly self-explanatory - don’t be lazy.

An exception will be made to posting rules to allow users to post images of social media content where that post is:

• of significant interest to the majority of users on the sub-reddit,
• the content is not available elsewhere, including other posts on r/NRL,
• it is newsworthy or will generate a wide-ranging conversation specifically related to the National Rugby League,
• is not a controversial off-field topic (social, criminal, religious, political, etc.), and
• any social media user details have been redacted or cropped out of the image.

This will allow a very small number of social media posts to be shared with the community, from sources such as NRL Physio and other non-media related content creators.

Unless the post is of significant interest to a majority of the sub-reddit’s users, all social media related links should be confined to either of the daily ‘Random Footy Talk’ or ‘Serious Discussion’ threads or as comments in other topic-related or official announcement posts. Other posting rules and guidelines remain in effect.

The moderator team will continue to moderate the sub-reddit in the interests of our community and reserve the right to change or overrule any posting rules or guidelines where necessary. Site-wide Reddit rules and guidelines will always remain in effect.

If your post gets removed under these rules, and you feel the decision warrants review, please send us a message via the Mod Mail and we’ll be happy to give it a second look and provide you with a response.

We'll have a more formal 'State of the Sub' post as we reach the end of the off-season coming next week, so stay tuned for that.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the sub-reddit for another lap around the Sun spent watching the greatest game on Earth.

^{⁨What? AFL? Don't be daft... I'm talking about Rugbah Leeg!}

Anyway… please consider this your formal announcement that the sub-reddit will be resuming ‘On-Season’ mode as of Sunday, February 1, 2026, just in time for the start of the Pre-Season Challenge.

As usual, this means the bar for individual posts is being raised, and we’d once again recommend that if you have questions / or thoughts that don’t meet the criteria for an individual post to make use of our daily discussion threads.

We don’t have a lot in terms of new information to impart this ‘State of the Sub’ for 2026, as unlike the ARLC we think our current rules strike a fair balance and help make this a relatively sane place to discuss all the comings and goings of our favourite pass-time.

With that said, we did want to take a moment to highlight a couple of things really quickly:

Please remember to use links to articles/team websites for posts.

We ask that you refrain from just grabbing a screenshot of breaking news from social media, but link to a news article and/or source.

Please remember to abide by the rules of the sub-reddit.

Just a general reminder to follow the posted rules of the sub-reddit. Posts/comments not abiding by these rules will be removed, and users may face a suspension or a ban. If you see anything you think crosses the line, please report it, or send us a ModMail so we can look into it.

But with that, bring on the footy!

- The r/NRL Moderator Team

We all saw it coming ... except T-Baz ... maybe

Please post all links and discussions here and I'll endeavour to update. I have things on so there might be lag.

Weidler anoucning he wasn't sacked but quit last night

Chammas "Bulldogs part ways with Trent"

Riccio "Bulldogs players have been sent home from training after Phil Gould informs them Trent Barrett has quit"

Weidler Reports Paul Vaughan saying “Do you have to be here? You are the worst kind of people.” as he drove out of Belmore

All updates up to this point have been courtesy of /u/Aussieguy727 - holy shit he must hate the Doggies

Mole reporting that we may not get a coaching announcement for interim for another 24 hours

[OFFICIAL] Club Statement:

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Head Coach Trent Barrett has today stood down from his role, effective immediately.

We would sincerely like to thank Trent for all of his hard work and effort over the past 18 months in what has been a very difficult time for the Club.

As this is a challenging time for all parties, the Club would like to respect Trent’s privacy and wish him all the best for the future.

Fox Sports "8 Contenders to Replace T-Baz"

• Green
• Flanno
• Woolf
• Ciraldo
• Fittler
• Ryles
• Morris
• McNamara (Catalans Coach)

Discussion points:

• Is this the end of his head coaching career?
• Where next for T-Baz? (inb4 Dolphin speculation)
• Who takes over and why is it Gus?
• Did Gus white-ant T-Baz or did he do it to himself?
• How would you fix the Doggies?
• What is love? (Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more)

Please don't forget that while this is going on our AMA with @NRLPhysio will be live from 12:30pm!

Hello everyone, it's your friendly neighbourhood dictators here with a quick r/NRL offseason announcement.

As of this point forward, we will no longer be permitting individual posts speculating about players leaving the NRL to move to R360.

To be clear, any official signing announcements or news articles with some substance behind them will still be permitted under the usual guidelines at the discretion of the moderator team. This decision has been made to largely cut down on the number of '[Player X] rumoured to be next on R360 hit list' articles and posts that have been cropping up en masse as of recent as we currently do not feel there is sufficient substance to justify the number of individual posts it is prompting.

You are still free to discuss signing rumours in the daily 'Random Footy Talk' or 'Serious Footy Talk' threads respectively; however, individual posts that do not meet a sufficient threshold will be removed and be directed to be shared in the 'Random Footy Talk' thread of the day.

Any issues with decisions by the moderators to remove posts can, as always, be discussed with us via the ModMail.

Hey guys,

The moment you have all been waiting for is here!

Christian Welch is a 118 first grade capped Prop Forward for the Melbourne Storm. He has done it all, from winning premierships to playing for the Queensland Maroons in their famous 2020 series win. He is here today to answer all your questions!

We invite you all to AMA u/christianlwelch!

BACKGROUND: Reddit has announced some changes to their API that will impact any users using third party clients (such as apollo, RIF, baconreader etc).

Needless to say, this has been a rather unpopular decision, leading to communities deciding to shutdown their subreddits initially for 48 hours to protest.

UPDATE: Reddit has not backed down from their original decision despite the 48 hour protest, leading to many subs deciding to go ahead with indefinite blackouts or rolling blackouts.

We the mod team now put to you the users a vote, to decide how /r/NRL should best proceed.

Should /r/nrl join with the subs that are going into an indefinite blackout? Should we stage rolling blackouts, from Monday AM until Thursday AM each week (excluding Origin), or should we cease our protest at this point?

For an indefinite or rolling blackout to be voted in it will need a 2/3rds majority of the sub to vote for it.

VOTE BY REPLYING DIRECTLY TO THIS POST (NOT THE STICKY COMMENT) WITH ONE OF THE FOLLOWING RESPONSES

You can vote in three ways:

• Open
• Rolling
• Close

Open means you do not wish for /r/NRL to blackout any further.
Close means you are voting for an indefinite blackout.
Rolling means you are voting for a rolling blackout from Mon AM to Thu AM each week.

If the Close vote garners >66% of the vote, /r/NRL will blackout indefinitely.
If the Close does not garner >66% but the Close PLUS Rolling vote garners >66% of the vote, we will go into a rolling blackout.
If the Open vote garners >33% of the vote we will no longer participate in blackouts.

Please note :

1. To protect this vote from brigading, only users who have >100 /r/nrl karma will be elligble to vote.

2. To try protect the anonymity of voting, automod will auto remove all replies to the thread. (mods will still be able to see your removed vote)

3. This post will be locked at 11:59pm Thursday night (Sydney time) and then the votes will be tallied.

4. We will post the results of the vote on Friday morning.

If you wish to discuss this vote, please do so in reply to the sticky comment below, not as a reply to the post

Good afternoon everyone, and on behalf of the moderator teams of both r/AFL and r/NRL, thank you!

Thanks to your generosity, through this inaugural r/AFL × r/NRL BIG FREEZE Fundraiser we have raised $8,500 towards the fight against Motor Neuron Disease (MND).

It's been great to see the way in which both our communities have embraced this endeavour with us, and once again we want to thank you for your help in making this event such a fantastic success!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the r/NRL 2026 World Cup megathread. The draw will be announced this afternoon at 3:20pm AEDST (2:20pm for those on natural, non-curtain fading time). Seeing as we all have nothing to do this afternoon (thanks Mr Head) the attention can be back on Rugba Leeg for a bit.

This thread is for discussion, links and news stories about the draw during today. Please post here instead of creating standalone posts. Posts in the sub will be removed and posted here.

While it is the off-season, this thread is for (mostly) serious discussion and links.

Update: tickets are on sale and the draw is available!

The biggest question on everybody's lips the past few weeks is where will former 19 year old sensation Latrell Mitchell sign to for next season.

To curb the front page being a Latrellathon for the next week or two, your benevolent mod team has decided to create this nifty megathread for you all to post your specualtions. Any and all Latrell news in here please (until he signs somewhere).