Dragons young gun Tyrell Sloan has admitted he was “uncoachable” at the start of his career and also opened up on losing his jersey to star recruit Clint Gutherson.
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The 22-year-old appeared to make the No. 1 jersey his own last season after starting 23 of 24 games, but when Gutherson became available this summer the Dragons pounced.
Sloan admits he was “a bit confused” when coach Shane Flanagan signed NSW representative Gutherson in November given he’d only just re-signed in June.
Flanagan declared Gutherson would be the new fullback but Sloan chose not to “kick stones” and revealed the 30-year-old reached out to him before pre-season started.
“It was pretty weird at the start,” Sloan told the SMH.
“I was a bit unsure about it. It’s fight or flight. I was a bit confused about the decision. But when I actually got to meet Gutho and you see the way he goes about his day, how he trains, how he moves, how he works, how he communicates, just all the little things that he does, then I understood why we brought Gutho in.
“It’s all sweet, it’s all business. I’m happy that he’s here.
“I could have taken it a different way and kicked stones, but Gutho’s been the best since day one.
“Even before he started training, he hit me up and told me why he’s here. And the reason why he’s here is he wants to win and help me be a better player.”
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Sloan produced some serious highlights reels as a teenager in his rookie NRL season in 2021 but he struggled with constructive criticism.
“At the start of my career, I did not know how to take (feedback) at all,” he said.
“I was probably uncoachable.
“I didn’t really want advice and thought I knew everything. I got a real rude shock in the NRL. I guess with years in the game, you mature over time.
“Now it’s a big thing having to do stuff away from footy, surrounding yourself with the right people.
“You just gotta be consistent on a day-to-day basis. I was probably a bit frantic early in my career; I was living at other people’s houses and not really sure where I was gonna be throughout the day.
“I was always up and down. But then I bought my own house, got some structure in my life and really settled down.
“As soon as I started to get that right, and I’m still working on it now, I felt like my footy and my life started to get a lot better and more consistent.
“With the mental side of things, I think I just took a bit of time to sort of grow up. I always try to hang around the right people, but early in my career, I wasn’t.
“I wasn’t doing the right stuff away from footy and just expecting everything to come. Now I really value hard work, turning up on time and just doing all the little things right, eating properly. If you don’t do that, it will catch up to you later on.”
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