St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan described his side’s second half performance “so bad you’ve got to try and laugh about it” and threatened to make significant changes to the team.
The Dragons started brightly in the first half and led 12-6 at half time but the Bulldogs flipped the script and piled on 38 unanswered points to win 44-12 at Accor Stadium.
Flanagan could have used Hame Sele and Jack Bird’s injuries as mitigating circumstances for why his team collapsed, but the Dragons coach refused to pin the blame on those incidents.
“Last time I was in this room I won a comp, how things have changed” Flanagan said during his post-match press conference.
“So bad, you’ve got to try and laugh about it. Two halves, so different.
“We were really good in the first half. I thought we ran hard, missed three tackles and competed really hard. I thought if we continued to do what we did in the first half, we’d win the football game.
“Credit to them, they did exactly what we did to them in the first half.
“Some of the numbers out of the game, you haven’t seen them too often. We only had eight sets, they had 26. Possession killed us.
“Then when we did finally get possession, we turned it over or gave penalties away, so our own worst enemy.”
The Dragons’ second half capitulation continued a worrying trend which has emerged throughout the season: when Flanagan’s side lose, they lose badly.
In the six games the Dragons have lost this season they have shipped a total of 238 points, an average of 39.6 points per game.
Flanagan conceded he hasn’t been able to put his finger on why his team are capitulating and if he could, he’d “fix it”.
“But it’s a tricky one,” Flanagan said.
“There’s a number of different things I’m thinking about why. Maybe we’re pushing the limits and I’m squeezing the lemon on a couple of them, I’m not quite sure.
“You can’t do it in one half and not do it in the other half, so it’s something we’ve got to work on.”
Flanagan did not rule out the prospect of a significant shake-up to his squad for the next game against the Penrith Panthers, hinting he could turn to players from the Dragons’ NSW Cup side.
Because if he doesn’t try something new, the premiership-winning coach knows he won’t be in a job for very long.
“Yeah, without a doubt,” Flanagan said.
“We’ll be looking at that (NSW Cup team) for sure.
“If you keep getting these results and you keep picking the same side, they’ll find a new coach.”