What St George Illawarra would have done differently with Ronald Volkman deal
Story by Christian Nicolussi • 21h
St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan said he felt sorry for would-be Dragon
Ronald Volkman after the club refused to register his contract with the NRL due to a shoulder injury – but insisted the Dragons had been forced to look after their own best interests.
Flanagan said the only thing the Dragons would have done differently was to make the player complete a medical behind closed doors, rather than have him take part in a training session while he was not officially on contract.
The 21-year-old Volkman remains without a club after being granted an official release from the New Zealand Warriors before Christmas only to have his one-year deal with the Dragons spiked once it became clear he needed shoulder surgery.
Flanagan insisted on Thursday the Dragons had done the right thing by themselves and also by Volkman.
Pressed on how the Dragons could have handled the situation more effectively Flanagan said: “The light training he did that exposed his injury should have been done behind closed doors.
“The training he did with us showed he wasn’t fit. It was more of a medical [that day]. He only caught and passed. He didn’t do any contact.
Ronald Volkman is now in limbo after it became clear he needed shoulder surgery.© NRL Photos
“I’ve done this for 20 years and I’ve never seen a player fail a medical. We have history on players, he had had a shoulder reconstruction ... but to look at the scans, he didn’t just fail [the medical] a little bit, he had two screws pulled out.
“I feel sorry for the young bloke. It’s unfortunate ... as a club, we had to protect ourselves. There are a lot of learnings from it. The club won’t shy away from that.”
Volkman is set to undergo a third set of scans in Sydney.
Warriors chief executive Cameron George told this masthead last week the club had not hidden anything from the Dragons about Volkman’s injury, and said they should have completed a medical before announcing the signing.
“That’s due diligence I would’ve thought a club would take before agreeing to sign someone,” he added.
Flanagan said Volkman’s strength in his shoulder was “down 60 per cent”, but he was not to know just how serious his injury was.
Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb, like Flanagan, was perplexed by the discrepancies in Volkman’s scan results.
“We didn’t have any reason to be overly cautious based on the information we had,” Webb said. “Next time, you’d be cautious about when you go public [with the signing news].
“It was really clear from us that, ‘pass the medical and you’ll be signed’. He didn’t pass the medical so he’s not one of our players. It’s really unfortunate.”
The Dragons, who have maintained contact with Volkman, have since signed Jesse Marschke, who was the NSW Cup player of the year and spent the past three months training with the Melbourne Storm.
“He was here today, contract signed, and he’s a good kid,” Flanagan said.
The Dragons also announced Squadron Energy would become the club’s back-of-jersey sponsor before replacing St George Bank as the major sponsor on the front of their jerseys for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.