Breaking point: Sloan considering Dragons exit after Hook blow-up

Tyrell Sloan is considering walking out on the St George Illawarra Dragons following a post-game bust-up with coach Anthony Griffin and two highly-publicised benchings, just months after originally being told he would be the club’s starting fullback at the start of the 2022 NRL season.

Hook told Sloan at the start of the Red V’s campaign he was the club’s number one.

That fullback status lasted just three rounds and two defeats, however, with the Indigenous representative jettisoned following a 36–12 loss to St George’s local arch-rivals the Sharks. He had played just 240 minutes in his preferred position, but Griffin had—as far as many can tell—seen enough. Veteran handyman Moses M’bye replaced him between rounds 4 and 9.

Sloan was given another chance to impress two weeks ago against the Titans but delivered several calamitous errors in the team’s 20–16 golden-point loss to the similarly-placed Titans in the NRL’s monster Magic Round bonanza.

Hook swung the axe again after the last-gasp loss. It may have cost him the club’s next big thing.

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According to sources around the club, and reported by Nine’s “Mole” on May 24, struggling Sloan has “told friends he believes he has no future at the club.” His about-face turn comes after Anthony Griffin pulled him aside recently and “tore strips off [Sloan].” The blow-up, The Sporting Base understands, was mainly about effort—in first-grade and NSW Cup.

Cody Ramsey’s all-star effort in the Dragons’ round 11 win hasn’t helped either.

While Sloan has yet to act on anything officially, there’s every chance the 19-year-old star knocks on the door of St George Illawarra’s biggest powerbrokers this week to request a release from the club.

The Sporting Base has heard the Dragons may actually consider it too. Sloan is signed until the end of 2024—he upped his junior deal in January at the same time as joining the team’s Top 30 list—but his response to Griffin’s call-out and lack of effort in both campaigns this season have put a fair few question marks in some heads.

Molong junior Cody Ramsey is a similar age too, at 22, and has proven just as explosive but with more of a willingness to learn, adapt, and improve this game when asked by Hook and club coaching staff.

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That being said, Hook himself has firmly confirmed he still sees Sloan as the future.

“Young Sloan is an enormous talent. This time last year he was playing in the 19s,” Griffin said. “They all mature at different rates and he’s just taking a bit of time to really grab onto the NRL. He is a young exciting player of the future. We’ve got to care for him and help him get right. It’s not a matter of him just going ‘bang’… they never do young players. We saw young [Sam] Walker at the Roosters really flatten out at the back end of last year.”

Griffin admits: “It’s a tough position, fullback.”

“We’re just helping him understand the really important parts of organising lines and when he gets that right all that stuff that God gave him, all that natural talent will just mean even more.”

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