Coach’s frosty response to journalist’s question after one-point loss

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan was not in the mood following his side’s agonising one-point loss and he took aim at one journalist.

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan was fuming at his side’s lack of effort and poise from his playmakers after the Dragons surrendered a 12-point lead to lose to Souths 25-24.

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The loss leaves the Dragons winless heading into the bye and Flanagan warned his players are set for a torrid fortnight before their next game.

“Well, you wouldn’t want to be one of my players for the next 10 or 12 days, that’s for sure,” Flanagan said.

“It’s not going to be pretty.”

Flanagan was fuming at his side’s lack of urgency with the game on the line.

“Well, too many things to cover really,” Flanagan said when asked what went wrong.

“There was poor decisions on last tackles, we kicked on tackle four when we were on a sideline, then we didn’t kick when we were in good field position.

“And then some really soft tries. I think it was Kepi scored. A dive over from dummy half, another one there. Not good enough.

“I’m really, really disappointed, because that’s not what this team has showed me in the trials and showed me during pre-season training.

Shane Flanagan was fuming at the Dragons.

“But in the end, Souths they’ve got some out, we know that, and they’re out in their feet. We could have knocked them out.

“We led by 12 and we could have knocked them out with a bit of effort and energy and we just couldn’t find it and they found it.

“Our fullback I thought just showed exactly what we needed. He had effort and energy.

“And then the kick of the field goal, I think the ball hit the ground twice and he just gets it and goes, oh I might as well have a shot here and we had no pressure on him.

“So, you don’t deserve to win when you do things like that and let soft tries in.”

Flanagan hinted that the inability to put Souths away was on his playmakers Kyle Flanagan and in particular Lachlan Ilias.

“Yeah, well, once again. I won’t go too deep into it, but the people who needed to make the decisions didn’t make them or the right ones and didn’t get us into field position,” Flanagan said.

“We showed no energy in that last six or seven minutes that when it was drawn to get into field position and maybe score a try.

“Every time we went down, we scored in the first half and we just didn’t give ourselves a chance.

“Credit to Souths they scrambled and they competed harder and longer.”

The Dragons couldn’t hold onto the lead. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

Pressed on if Ilias is where he needs to be after his latest performance Flanagan was brutal.

“You were here weren’t you?” Flanagan said.

“You’re smarter than that. You can make your own assessment.”

Flanagan wasn’t accompanied by his captains at the press conference, but he didn’t blame their effort.

“I thought Gutho tried and Damien had to go and play right centre for Suli when he came off and it is not his ideal position, but he’s done it plenty of times before,” Flanagan said.

“He probably hit the nail on the head there without me going into it too deep.

“Cooky just got a bit of a knock to the back of his head, but I think he’s getting attended to, so that’s why he’s not here.”

Flanagan lamented that Souths found energy to ice the game where his players couldn’t.

“Well, they found energy to get there and get that field position,” Flanagan said.

“And in the NRL, it’s just sometimes it is mind over matter, you have just got to get there, you have got to get it done.

The Dragons players couldn’t find the energy when it mattered most. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

“Everyone’s fatigued, everyone’s tired, but it’s the people that can go and do it once you’re into the fatigue. They’re the classy NRL players, you know, and we just didn’t have any of them today.

“We just didn’t compete hard enough for long enough.”

The Dragons have an injury to Suli to sweat on after a failed attempt to needle his rib complaint.

“Suli has a rib injury,” Flanagan said.

“He got a painkiller at half time and I don’t think it helped at all, so he was a passenger in the second half and we had to get him off.”

In a rare bright spot Tyrell Sloan scored a double in his return.

“Sloaney was one of the better ones,” Flanagan said.

“He tried hard, scored a good try and so on, but we just need more of everyone.”

The Dragons will welcome David Klemmer after the bye, but Flanagan believes his side have bigger issues than he can solve alone.

“Yeah, he is a chance and Klemmer is a good player, but is he going to fix that, our attitude and effort in the last 30 seconds when a ball’s on the ground to go and get itand want to win it?” Flanagan asked.

“He’ll help, but we’ve got bigger issues.”

Originally published as Coach’s frosty response to journalist’s question after one-point loss