Shane Flanagan backs Dragons spine stocks despite recruitment setbacks

Volkman secured a release from the remaining two years of his deal with the Warriors to link with the Dragons on a one-year deal in the hope of seeing regular NRL action in 2024.

He briefly took the training paddock in Dragons garb but the club did not register the contract after a medical revealed the 21-year-old required a shoulder reconstruction that will rule him out for the year.

Volkman had been seen as a much-needed pick-up given a lack of depth behind skipper Ben Hunt and new recruit Kyle Flanagan in the halves, the latter having been brought to the club as a hooking option.

It's another setback to Flanagan Senior's plan to hit the ground running in year one at the helm, but he backed the club's handling of the matter.

"From a selfish perspective I'm disappointed for us, but also for Ronald," Flanagan said.

"It's a shattering news for him. I'll leave it to the club to sort out the other side of things, but the facts are he hurt himself when he was at the Warriors and he needs surgery.

"From a Dragons perspective, we did all the testing that we could. Some of the on-field testing that we did with him, maybe we should have done that behind closed doors, but what's the difference?

"We still found out that he had something going on in his shoulder and we got all the medical tests that we needed to do to determine that. From the the medical side of things from our club, I think we did a good job."

With Volkman now left in contract limbo, the Warriors role in releasing him has attracted scrutiny, but Flanagan said he "won't be pointing fingers."

"In my 20 years of doing this job, I've never had a player fail a medical, so it's a strange one," Flanagan said.

"I'll let our CEO fill the gaps. The Warriors announced that he was leaving, not us. He wanted to say goodbye to his teammates before he left the last training session before Christmas.

"He hadn't even got here to do his screening or anything. There's a lot of things that could be done better, but this happens in football.

"When a player is leaving, especially from another country, there's the timeline factor and, and so on. There's circumstances around it and everyone should learn from them."

It leave the club skinny in the halves following the release of Jayden Sullivan and the de-registration of Talatau Amone, with Flanagan confirming son Kyle is now a lock for the No. 6 jumper.

"I did buy Kyle to be that 14-type player and play nine, but he's doing a really good job with Ben Hunt in the halves now," Flanagan said.

"I think down the track he'll turn into a nine. It might be in three or four years, but at the moment, he's going to play six for us. Ben's worked with Kyle and his calming influence and his nature has rubbed off.

"I think Ben's felt that as well, [Kyle's] taken a lot of pressure off him. If you look at the Dragons over the last couple of years, say on the last tackle it's 'where's Ben Hunt, they have to find Ben Hunt' because that's where everything centered around now. Now it doesn't.

"I think Ben's felt a lot of weight lifted off his shoulders in those departments. Kyle strengths are organisation and just doing his job, where Ben's strengths are running and running the game. It frees Ben up to do those type of things."

North Sydney Bears utility Jesse Marschke has been added to club's top 30, but a bid for Canberra hooker Zac Woolford to make an immediate move to Wollongong was knocked back by the Raiders.

An ACL injury to Corey Allan just hours after being unveiled in Dragons gear has also out a dent in fullback options, but Flanagan is confident he has the arsenal to see out a successful season.

"I'm comfortable where we are in the spine," Flanagan said.

"Jesse Marschke's been an elite kid, he got player of the year for the New South Wales Cup last year and he can play nine and seven. We've got Connor Muhleisen and Jacob Liddle in the nine department, so I think we're covered there.

"I've got Kyle and Ben Hunt and the halves, and then I've got Birdy (Jack Bird) or Jesse Marscke, so there's four there. At fullback we've got Tyrell Sloan who could be anything, could be a superstar, and Zac Lomax has been training at full back as well, so I'm covered there as well."

While losing Volkman and Allan in the same week is a fair hiccup, Flanagan denied the club has copped a series a black eyes on the recruitment front.

"There's been a bit of noise out there that we missed out on a couple of signings, we missed out on one, Addin Fonua-Blake," Flanagan said.

"Some of the other signings that they said we were interested in, they never left their club. If a player stays at his club, we haven't missed out on him. We haven't missed out on any players bar Addin.

"The place has been really, really positive, our training's been outstanding. It's a happy place and we're training really hard. [What's being said] externally, I can't control that."