“I can’t believe,to be honest,the way we attack each other in this great game of ours,” Flanagan said.

“I love the game. I love the people that I’ve met through it. I love the players that I’ve coached. I understand it,but I don’t enjoy it and I don’t encourage what’s going on.

“I wouldn’t wish what’s going on with me in the last couple of weeks to anyone. That’s the way it is. I can’t change that.”

Flanagan is,of course,paid handsomely to wear the scrutiny,as are most of his underperforming players.

He still has a contract and despite understandably not having the answers immediately after last Saturday’s insipid performance,he still believes. So he will keep punching against the tide.

“I’m not worried about my future,” he said.

Though “you can imagine what the feedback’s been” in conversations with chairman Andrew Lancaster and CEO Tim Watsford.

“I’ve got more important things to worry about. At this stage of my career,I’ve got to worry about the club. I’m not worried about me. And if I do that,if I do the job and we get through it,that’s great. And if we don’t,we’ll walk away and just say that I tried my best.”

Would you walk away?

“No,I’m here to do a job and I still feel I’m the best person for it. So I’ll just keep battling on. I’ve[coached rugby league] for 20 years,so I think I can do it.”

As the questions kept coming,old ground,inevitably,was covered once more.

Kyle Flanagan isn’t returning from a heavy concussion at halfback “just because of his surname”.

“He’s in our top three or four players competitive wise,week in,week out. So he’s our best halfback in the club at the moment. So we pick him.”

Flanagan would have to answer to wife Cathie if Kyle wasn’t completely fit to play by the way.

Thestate of the Dragons roster - “have you got it wrong?” - was answered with a sidestep that said plenty,and pointed,as Flanagan has more than once,to the long-term impacts ofBen Hunt,Zac Lomax andFrancis Molo falling out and leaving the club.

The Dragons have paused all extension talks given the coaching uncertainty.

“And if I’m a player,it’s probably not a good time to be coming and asking for anything as well,” Flanagan noted. “It’s not,‘We don’t want the players’ or we’re moving on from those players. It’s just,‘Let’s just concentrate on football’,because we need to.”

Tyrell Sloan gets a start at fullback due to Clint Gutherson’s hamstring injury,winger Setu Tu replaces the suspended David Fale and Daniel Atkinson shifts to five-eighth on Friday night.

Mostly forced rather than wholesale changes to a team that has forgotten how to win.

“There was one or two[more selection calls] I was considering,but I put a lot of faith in some of those boys that have played the last couple of weeks,” Flanagan said. “I’m not saying this is their last opportunity,but they’ve been given an opportunity to turn it around and hopefully that happens.”

As for how many more Flanagan gets,with all that “blood in the water”? Unfortunately,it all feels a bit inevitable.