The Dragons squandered their second 12-point lead in three games on Saturday.
Scott Pryde
St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan has revealed changes to his spine are unlikely despite the Red V squandering their second 12-point lead of the season.
The Round 4 win over the Melbourne Storm was something of a distant memory on Saturday afternoon as the joint-venture ran out to a 20 points to 8 lead, only to drop the game to the Parramatta Eels in a golden point thriller in front of a big crowd at Parramatta.
The performance handed Parramatta their first win of the season, and sends the Dragons back to the drawing board, with Flanagan’s side unable to find the goal line defence that got them out of trouble time and time again seven days prior against Melbourne.
The Dragons again made more errors than their opposition with 12, completing at just 73 per cent throughout the contest.
The Round 4 win over the Melbourne Storm was something of a distant memory on Saturday afternoon as the joint-venture ran out to a 20 points to 8 lead, only to drop the game to the Parramatta Eels in a golden point thriller in front of a big crowd at Parramatta.
The performance handed Parramatta their first win of the season, and sends the Dragons back to the drawing board, with Flanagan’s side unable to find the goal line defence that got them out of trouble time and time again seven days prior against Melbourne.
The Dragons again made more errors than their opposition with 12, completing at just 73 per cent throughout the contest.
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Flanagan, asked whether he was considering changes, said putting out a different inexperienced spine wouldn’t help the club’s cause.
“I don’t think it was a big step back. We didn’t move forward, I know that much. There was a lot of effort there, but we just didn’t execute properly at really important times,” Flanagan said during his post-match press conference.
“There were a couple of decisions there that I thought were tough, and we didn’t handle what came after it very well.
“We led by 12, same thing as we did against South Sydney. We led by 12 and couldn’t finish it, couldn’t nail it.
“We have to learn quickly.
“I can throw out new spines and all that sort of stuff, but it’s an inexperienced spine so we aren’t going to toss that out there.
“We just didn’t get it done.”
Club co-captain Damien Cook revealed he and his teammates simply must be smarter.
“We just have to be better, smarter with the way we play. We had a 12-point lead again like we did against Souths a couple of weeks ago, but we just have to be better at playing our footy and sticking to it,” the veteran dummy half said.
