Flanagan pins hopes on Sharks’ new blood

HE’S still smarting from Valentine Holmes’ dramatic 11thhour walk- out but Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan is refusing to panic despite losing more than half of his 2018 NRL preliminary final backline.

Holmes’s release from the final year of his contract comes after Flanagan allowed Jesse Ramien and Edrick Lee to go to Newcastle and Ricky Leutele to the English Super League – largely because the coach expected to keep his superstar fullback on a new multimillion- dollar long- term deal.

“If we knew Val wasn’t ( going to be) here, one or two of those players might have still been here,” Flanagan said.

But rather than hastily shelling out the big chunk of cash suddenly back at the Sharks’ disposal, Flanagan is leaning towards pinning his faith on Cronulla’s crop of next- gen stars – headed by teenage sensation Bronson Xerri – to fill the backline void.

Under NRL welfare rules, Xerri, who has committed to the Sharks until the end of 2021, was ineligible to make his debut in 2018.

“He’s a really good young kid who played Australian schoolboys and everything,” Flanagan said.

“I would have played him in first grade this year but he wasn’t old enough.”

Now he is 18, Xerri looms as an exciting proposition for Flanagan, who believes he has ample options – including his own talented son Kyle, 19.

“Josh Morris will go on the left and Dugan will be the right centre and I’ve got some other good young kids,” he said.

“And Sione Katoa played a couple of games last year. He’ll be better for that. On the wing, we’ve still got Sosia Feki and then I’ve just got to make a decision with fullback.”