Ex-Dragons halfback Lachlan Ilias has revealed his bitterness at not getting a fair chance to return to the team after being dropped by Shane Flanagan early in 2025.
The 25-year-old played just seven games in his rookie season at the Dragons before he was dropped by Flanagan, who played son Kyle and Lyhkan King-Togia in the halves for the rest of the season.
The Dragons finished 15th, while their NSW Cup side with Ilias at halfback went all the way to the Grand Final, but he never got a chance in first grade again, before switching to the Titans on a two-year deal in the off-season.
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Speaking on the Unscripted podcast, hosted by Josh Mansour, Ilias was confused after being dropped for his defence and felt he did enough in reserve grade to deserve another chance, particularly as the Dragons struggled for wins in the NRL.
“Our first win was against Melbourne in Kogarah in the wet – we were building nicely, but then shit happens,” Ilias said on the Unscripted Podcast.
“I don’t think I was given a fair opportunity to get back into the team after I was dropped.
“I got told I was dropped for my defence, I don’t know what was said in the media or why I was dropped. [It was about] reads and it was a new defensive system as well, so I was getting used to it and they said there were a few tries between me and Jaydn Su’A.
“I told the defensive coach and the wrestling guy after I got dropped that I would do more extras and put my best foot forward to try and get picked back into the team.
“I was doing all that, I went back to Cup and I barely missed a tackle for five or six weeks. I just don’t think I got a fair crack.”
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Ilias was pressed on whether he was kept in the loop with the first grade squad as to his progress in his bid to return to the NRL.
“Not really,” Ilias said.
“The only dialogue that I got after I got dropped was after we won 10 or 11 games in a row for Cup and then we played terrible against Newtown … it just wasn’t our day and that was the only time I got feedback about my game, saying that I played poorly.
“I was doing everything I could, I don’t know if I could have done any more to get back into the team. It was a different time, because the boys in NRL weren’t playing great but we were playing well, so the vibe was high in the Cup team.
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“We were building these connections in Cup, putting our best foot forward … I don’t think myself or other boys in the Cup team were given a fair opportunity to get back into NRL.”
Ilias is not the only former Dragons player to leave the club due to a lack of opportunities in first grade, with his halves partner Jonah Glover joining the Rabbitohs.
Glover had similar sentiments to Ilias on his exit from the club when he said: “I was never going to play first grade at the Dragons.”
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Ilias believes Glover and fullback Tyrell Sloan should have been given more opportunities in first grade, given the team was not performing.
“I’ve got to shout out Jonah Glover as well, I think he deserved a spot and definitely deserved at least a debut,” Ilias said.
“He’s just signed to Souths, he got five-eighth of the year for Cup – not just our player of the year, but the competition.
“Sloany [Tyrell Sloan] was dropping in and out of the team, he’s an unreal winger.
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“I’m not trying to talk shit about anything else, but I just think there were a few things that went wrong and I feel like the best team wasn’t picked week-in and week-out.
“[I am] a little bit bitter that I didn’t get a fair crack. I don’t think I had a fair opportunity to get back into the side. I did everything to put myself back into the team.”
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