Tyrell Sloan interview | Epic big Marn stitch up, Dragons big win over Tigers & more! 08:32

Now, time to talk to one of the Dragons, and he had some great news this week, of course, re-signing with the club. I speak of Tyrell Sloan, but Daryl, Shane and Paul Gallen, it's been brought to my attention that last night when our producer, Andrew, our executive producer, was organising the interview, he put through the request to the media person for the Dragons, whose name is Chris, I believe, and last night, so we organised for Tyrell Sloan to come on the show, but this is what's unfolded.

Tyrell asked the Dragons media manager, Chris Kennedy, who's it with? Chris replied, Mark Levy, Daryl Roman, Paul Gallen and Flanno.

Jaden Sewer chimed in. He said, Darryl Broman, is he the one that sings We'll Be Riding on the Horses, yeah? Zach Lomax has chimed in with, that's Darryl Braithwaite, you idiot. He's not happy. And he's a Queenslander. He does not know who you are. He's got no idea who you are. I did push strongly for him for state of origin selection, Jaden Sewer, as we're all aware. Well, that's a ceasing as it now. So you're going to cut him from a winning side, you're going to cut him? Yep.

Well, let's find out if that's exactly what happened. Tyrell Sloan's on the line right now. Hey, Tyrell.

Hi, mate. How you going? Good, thank you. Is this true? Did Jade and Sue think the big man is the guy who sings horses? Yeah, after the game, we sung the team song and we were sitting down after it and the boys opened a few beers there. But, yeah, you hit it right on the head there. Whatever Sue was talking about, me and Loie just stood there and laughed. This can't be true. It's true. This can't be true, Tyrell. Seriously. Ty, did you know who he was?

Oh, yeah, I know a big man. I said straight away after the footy show, like, oh, come on. Fair enough, fair enough. He's become a little bit of a villain. Mate, when you speak to Sewer, well-named, by the way... LAUGHTER

Let him know he's lost my support. The Queenslanders are turning on each other again. Rock solid they are, aren't they? Rock solid. Hey, Tyrell, 56 points to 14. Seven unanswered tries in the second half. It was a night out for the Dragons, wasn't it, mate?

Yeah, it was a good win. You know, first half was not our best performance and something that I feel like we're trying to work on is get a full game of consistency, just some footy. And, you know, second half we come out there and responded and, you know, we just went back to what we do is just run hard and, you know, let our spine step up and finish off the points there.

Mate, it must look good. It's funny with you blokes because when you win a game, you invariably do it well and maybe not win easily but when you've lost games this year, you've lost by big margins. Any idea why that is? Yeah, I think it's just when we focus on us and we get our attitude right. After a couple of wins there, we've

we're probably going to get a bit complacent and, you know, think we're doing better than what we are. But, you know, as a team and, you know, with our leaders there, the senior boys, we've got to step up and, you know, make sure, you know, we just start some training throughout the week. You know, we notice when, you know, something's not up to standard and, you know, we step right onto it and,

I feel like, you know, when we do that, we can go into games with a defensive mindset and, you know, back our D. But, you know, that's something I said, yeah, we're trying to work on is, you know, get back-to-back performances and...

continue to work hard and get some wins. Yeah, Tyrell, when you win, you definitely defend well. I've said that to Flannoy multiple times. You keep teams sort of 12, 14 points to get the win. He's got to find out how to do that most weeks if he can. But for yourself, Percy, what's Flannoy done for you? Has he given you any self-confidence? Has he taught you anything else in the game? What's he done for you as a coach?

Yeah, well, Flannoy and Dino, you know, Dino's our defensive coach. You know, we both work really hard every week. You know, there's always different shapes coming at me and I'm always the one that's getting spotted on the line. But for me, I just love being on the Flannoy. You know, he puts belief in me, you know, week in, week out. And, you know, he's

gives me a message, you know, individually what to do and what to bring to the team. And, you know, obviously my focus is my defense. And, you know, when I get that right, I know my attack will come. And, you know, as I said, I just love being on the front. You know, he believes in me. You know, he wants me to step up and even do more. And I know my attack game can take care of itself. But as I said, it's always just been my defense I need to work on.

Tyrell, I wanted to ask you about the new deal, mate. Two more years signing through until the end of 2026. That's obviously a great show of faith in you from the coaching staff, the club, and it's nice to have that weight lifted off your shoulders knowing you're going to be there for the next couple of years.

Yeah, it's good. I was very happy to get that deal done and it's good to see that the club believes in me and now my time to put the faith back in them and repay them for what they do for me. But as I said, I'm a well-known boy. I grew up in the area and

I never really wanted to go anywhere else. I love playing the Red V week in, week out. The group of boys we've got now just makes it even more special. I was happy to see the boys come back from origin and back up. Only two out of the three did because I saw it played pretty crap. Well said, mate.

I'm very happy with staying and looking forward to what we can do for the rest of the year and years to come. Good on you. It's really interesting you listen to Tyrell talk.

Which he's getting better at, you know, in a group. Like, it's hard to talk in a group of men in a video room and you're worrying about saying something that's not right so you don't say it. But, you know, he's growing in that stature. But it's really, from a growth perspective and from my perspective, is hearing someone talk about loves the Dragons and wants to play for the Dragons because...

I reckon we've lost that, not just the Dragons, but a lot of clubs it's become about money and becoming about, you know, your career because everyone keeps saying you only got a short career, you got a short career. Well, there is that and I understand that part of it and you've got to make the most of it. But also, like I look at Gal, you know, there's also this bit of pride and passion about the club you play for and Tyrell's definitely got that. Good on you. Good on you, mate. Tyrell, just on those team meetings Flanagan talks about, does he still use the word wood duck and things like that?

Well, he is a wood duck, Tyrell. Well, there you go. He's calling you a wood duck. So I imagine he's still... Shane, you know how you just said it's very difficult for a young bloke to get his say in? You just be quiet for a second. Hey, hey, Tyrell's hung up. Oh, he's hung up. LAUGHTER

He knows when not to comment. I was going to give him an opportunity. Anyway, terrific to catch up with him. Andrew, just give him a ring and thank him for his time. He seems like a really respectful young man. Good luck to him. He is. And as I said, sometimes you look at a young man like that and you sort of cast an opinion without knowing him. And he is one of the top class young men in this world. You know what he can do? I was pleased that he said you gave him a lot of support and

And, you know, stuff, which is great. I mean, from a coach, you must be enjoying someone saying something like that because, you know, he was like under a bit of pressure at times this year because his defence hasn't been 100%, but he's clearly working on it. Well, the art of coaching, I believe, is, you know, like...

if I've got Paul Gallen, I don't need to be able to put my arm around Gallen, you know, come on mate, we need you to do this, need you to do that. He doesn't need any more confidence. No, he's a grown man and he's played Origin and all that sort of stuff. I need to do other things with Gallen. But,

Tyrell, he needs someone to believe in him and put your arm around him and tell him what he's doing right. Sometimes not always the things that he's doing wrong, which I think is... That's why Tyrell's been coached a little bit. Mate, you're not doing this, you're not doing that, you're not doing this. Well, I focus a fair bit on what he's doing right, you know, and keep improving. He could be a great, great player. He's got...

Attack-wise, well, he's probably got the odd rough age, but not much. He's pretty natural attack-wise, but his defence has certainly improved. When you've got a bloke who's got his level of skill and his pace, et cetera, et cetera, he's a massive plus for you blokes. I agree, and the main thing is the ability to want to learn and want to get better. He knows he's got so much improvement, so that's a great thing for me to be able to work with a kid that just wants to swallow it all up.