Former St George Illawarra Dragons assistant Michael Ennis has opened up on a “disappointing” week where the former premiership player was told his services were no longer required by the club.
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With Shane Flanagan’s departure from the club on Monday and Dean Young’s appointment to the interim position later in the evening, Young informed Ennis he was part of the change needed at the club and as a result was dismissed from his position.
Ennis had only been part of Flanagan’s coaching staff since September last season, following the club’s disappointing 15th placed finish.
Speaking on Fox League’s pre-game show on Thursday night, Ennis opened up on the whirlwind of the week he’s had following the change at St George Illawarra.
“It was disappointing in the first part that Shane (Flanagan) and I are obviously very close, and to see how difficult it’s been for him as a close friend and a great mentor and a great coach,” Ennis told the panel.
“That was tough on Monday… and then obviously disappointing after having a conversation with Dean (Young) because I love coaching, and I thoroughly understand that with the position that the club’s in and the results they’ve had, they needed to make some change.”
The change at the Dragons didn’t stop at Ennis though.
Dragons General Manager of Football Ben Harran was shown the exit door with Flanagan on Monday morning, with developments over the past few days revealing premiership winning player and ex-Dragon Ben Creagh will take over the role.
Young has also brought in the recently retired Tom Eisenhuth and Dragons NSW cup coach Willie Talau into the NRL set up as assistants.
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Tough and sweeping changes also led to tough discussions, which the new Dragons interim addressed in his media conference on Tuesday.
“That one was hard, mate, to be honest,” Young said on the decision to part ways with Ennis
“The toughest part of the job is telling people that there’s no job here for them. I’ve known Mick for a long time.
“Unfortunately he’s part of the change. We need a circuit breaker. We need things to look different. We need things to feel different.”
However it seems mutual respect between the two hasn’t been lost, with Ennis and Young both wishing each other well following the split.
“I respect him for the conversations that he had,” Ennis said to Fox League about Young.
“(I) can really do nothing more than to wish them well, there’s some great people at the Dragons and whilst results haven’t been there, there’s great things happening there and I’m really looking forward to watching them.
“I hope Dean does a great job with them which I’m sure he will.”
It seems Ennis is at peace with Young’s decisions towards sweeping changes.
The former Dragon believes the changes, including the one which cost him his position at the club, will lead to positive results.
“For sure, I mean Shane’s certainly got his style and how he went about it and Dean’s been really open about wanting to change some things up and felt like it needed change,” Ennis told Fox League.
“He’s (Young) done the interim role before, and he’s obviously worked with these players for a long period of time over the last couple of years so he knows them well and he knows what he feels needs to change.”
Those immediate changes also included handing 20-year old half Kade Reed his NRL debut, leading to Kyle Flanagan being dropped to the bench.
He will make his debut in the Dragons’ highly anticipated ANZAC day clash against the Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
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