‘I’m happy to take it on the chin’: Lachlan Ilias says he’s moved on after his coach’s post-game criticism following Souths loss

Dragons halfback Lachlan Ilias insists that everything is fine and coach Shane Flanagan has apologised for his post-match comments following the loss to Souths where he criticised his No.7 for failing to ice a game that they lost by a point. The Dragons had opened up a handy lead but were beaten by a Jamie Humphreys field goal, with Ilias and his teammates not setting up for their own one-pointer when they were in good field position. It prompted Flanagan to have a bit of a crack at his halfback who was playing his second game for the club, although Ilias is adamant there are no lingering issues after his coach called him the following day to apologise. “You know me, I don’t read anything, and I still don’t really know what he said,” Ilias replied when asked what he thought about his coach’s comments. “I’m the No.7 here. I know that carries a responsibility, and I told them when I came to the club that I wanted that responsibility. “I’m happy to take it on the chin. We move on from it and learn from it. I understand I could have been better that day. “The last two weeks I tried to be a better person on and off the field. At the end of the day I’m the No.7, and they need me to be better.” The Dragons lost their first two games but bounced back with a gritty victory over the Storm, with Ilias and the rest of the spine executing the final 10 minutes much better after Jacob Liddle scored to give them the lead. The apology meant a lot to Ilias, who understood where his coach was coming from after a frustrating loss. “That’s footy. It’s all coming from a good place. We want the best for each other. We’re good. Everything is good,” he said. “He wanted us to keep playing our footy. After ‘Liddsy’ scored his try (against the Storm), we spoke as a spine about the need to keep playing the way we want to play. “We went away from that against Souths, we tried to protect the lead – that was on me – and I acknowledge that. “The first two weeks we had two winnable games. We could have been 3-0, but the footy gods weren’t on our side the first two weeks.” There are still a few teething issues for the Dragons who have yet to nail their attack, but Flanagan was much happier with what he saw from his spine who impressed him all pre-season and in the trials. He said after the Storm game that veteran recruits Damien Cook and Clint Gutherson didn’t need time to adjust to the system, and it was only natural for Ilias to take a bit longer to find his feet given he missed most of 2024 with a serious leg injury. “We’ve got to adjust a bit to Lachie because he missed a whole year last year, so him coming into our spine and us giving him a bit of time to adjust and play some NRL (was important),” he said. “Our spine is not an excuse when we don’t win games, but the positive when we do win games is that they had a massive contribution to it.”