'It'll never be just another club': Cronulla return not lost on Flanagan

Flanagan set tongues wagging ahead of his return to Shark Park this week with a cheeky jibe following his side's heavy loss to the Roosters on Anzac Day, offering a rhetorical "I won a comp there. I don't think they've won one since, have they?"

It was a light touch on what was an inevitable story line as the 58-year-old heads to Cronulla for the first time as a rival head coach, more than 2000 days since he last coached the Sharks in a preliminary final in 2018.

That came two years after spearheading the club to its first and only premiership in 2016, the obvious high point of a famously tumultuous tenure at the club that resulted in two suspensions and his ultimate de-registration as a head coach.

It leaves him not the first coach to coach against a club they've led to a premiership, but certainly the first to do so in the circumstances he'll do so on Sunday.

While his focus is on righting the Dragons ship fresh off a 60-18 pasting at the hands of the Roosters, the significance of the moment isn't lost on the title-winning mentor.

"To win the first premiership for the club, to go through what we went through, it'll never be just another club [for me]," Flanagan said.

"I won their only premiership, my only premiership, so it's never going to be just another club, but I've got a job to do for the Dragons now and I'm looking forward to it. It's a challenge.

"I had a great time with the Sharks, it was the highlight of my coaching career, so I get back there with fond memories and [fondness for] Sharks supporters.

"I go back there with some great memories, but I'm going there with a really strong mindset of what we need to do.

"Anyone in rugby league going up against their old club looks forward to getting there and marking it in the calendar, but in the end we've just got to get two points and it's another round.

"As a footy coach I've just got to worry about what I can control and that's the Dragons."

Flanagan admit to sharing some texts with Sharks chairman Steve Mace in the aftermath to his press conference jibe.

"That was just me firing a few people up," he said.

"The chairman over there might have sent me a text message straight after. I'm mates with him, so it was just some friendly banter."

Flanagan's return to face his former club isn't the only swings and roundabouts sub-plot to the encounter, with Jack Bird set to play his 150^th first grade game against the club with which he won the 2016 premiership under Flanagan.

That came after the Sharks swooped on the Berkeley product, who was a stand-out in the Dragons junior ranks, ahead of the 2015 season.

The prodigious talent played Origin within two years, but endured a torrid time on leaving the Sharks for a lucrative deal with Brisbane.

His time with the Broncos was plagued by serious injuries, including to ACL tears, before he returned to his junior club three years ago.

Flanagan said clearing the hurdles to reach the milestone was no mean feat for the 29-year-old - who lined up at left centre in Saturday's captain's run.

"I remember recruiting him to go to the Sharks, he was a young kid playing in the [Dragons] 20s," Flanagan said.

"He was young and fearless. I think his first game was against the Roosters at the old Football Stadium and he didn't care who he was playing, he just went out there and ripped and teared and I think he scored a couple of tries in that game.

"He's a bit a little bit more mature now, which is a good thing, and I'm looking forward to his 150th because he's had a tough road. He had a pretty nasty illness, some arthritis issues that he had to get on top of.

"He came to the Sharks and made his debut, he's had a pretty good career, played Origin. We forget a little bit of that.

"You forget Birdy's had some terrible injuries, knee (reconstructions) and fractured his sternum, had some infections and so on, so he's fought really hard.

"It's great to have been there for his first game and [now] his 150^th."

Flanagan's decision to reboot Bird's career as an NRL centre at the expense of shifting Zac Lomax to the wing this season has been a major talking point surrounding the Dragons campaign given the latter's decision to depart the club at season's end.

Bird will move to left edge if Saturday's captain's run is any guide, and Flanagan remains convinced Bird's "best football is in front of him" at just 29.

"It's a tricky one because he's a talented footy player and can play numerous positions," Flanagan said.

"Sometimes that can be to the detriment of some football players in general because, with your versatility, you can't nail down one spot in a team and versatility ends up coming back to bite you.

"You don't play that much football because you're on the bench or you're just treated as that utility player.

"Birdy can play fullback, can play centre, play five-eighth and he's played in the back row, all at NRL level. We just wanted to give him some certainty.

"He's not the biggest back-rower and he's lost some weight over the preseason so I think the back-row days are over.

"He's probably just better suited to the centres and he's making a good fist of it at the moment."

Milestones aside, the Dragons will need to produce a dramatic turnaround to test the high-flying Sharks after going down in convincing fashion to the Roosters, Flanagan admitting his squad was "embarrassed and quiet" on its return to training this week.

"It's something we can't have and we've got to learn from it, so we didn't brush over it," Flanagan said.

"We made sure that we reviewed it properly and addressed why it happened. They scored six tries off kicks, (Sam) Walker played well, but it still shouldn't have happened.

"We needed to review it and then we needed to prepare for the Sharks this weekend. That's the tricky thing you've got to make sure you get right as a coach

"We were straight back into it on Tuesday and we've had no excuses, we've had a good week."