Flanno fumes at shocking forward pass call in Dragons' loss to Canberra

News.com.au

3 days ago

Dragons coach Shane Flanagan was left fuming at a controversial forward pass call that denied Tyrell Sloan a hat-trick and ultimately proved the difference in his side's 28-24 loss to the Raiders.
Sloan scored a classy double, but he was denied the first try of the game for a forward pass from Moses Suli that, at worst, looked flat and, at best, was well backwards.
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Flanagan believes his side should have won the game and would have won if Sloan's first try had stood.
'I'm not going to talk about the list of injuries or the players who we have got out, I'm talking about the players that were out there,' Flanagan said.
'Whoever puts that jersey on just goes out and does the job and they did that tonight and I thought we should have won.
'Lucky the rules are changing in relation to press conferences because I'd be paying a fine.'
A journalist pressed Flanagan on whether he was referring to the forward pass call that denied Sloan's try.
'You know exactly what it's about, everyone knows it's there, what was there and it's tough,' Flanagan said.
'When you're a side flying high like the Raiders, you probably see that they get the bounce of the ball and they deserve it because they're at the top of the table.
'And when you're where we're at in the middle of the table sometimes you feel that you just don't get the rub of the green, so it's a tough one and in the end that's the difference.'
Sloan has been given permission to talk with rival clubs, but Flanagan admitted he showed how good he can be against the Raiders.
'That's what we know he can do, speed and finishing,' Flanagan said.
'There was another little moment there where I would have liked him to tidy up, which resulted in a try to the opposition, but he showed some real class to score two tries.'
In an awkward moment, Flanagan was pressed on the Raiders fans booing his son Kyle Flanagan during his goal kicking, which caught the Dragons coach off-guard.
'Never heard it. What would the crowd be booing Kyle for?' Flanagan asked.
'Just kicking the conversion early in the game, they were quite passionate,' the journalist replied.
'I think they do that, so good on them, it's going to happen everywhere,' Flanagan said.
Despite the loss Flanagan believes his side can be proud of their effort against the competition leaders.
'We're a proud club, we have a strong group, Canberra are a good side and we fought back and we should have won without a doubt,' Flanagan said.
'I thought everyone stepped up. I thought everyone had some moments, we had some not so good ones and we had some really good ones and we put ourselves in the game.'
The loss means the Dragons sit 11th and are two points outside the top eight, but Flanagan challenged his side to show consistency with their effort and commitment.
'If we had that attitude and that commitment week in and week out, we're going to win a lot more games on the way home,' Flanagan said.
'So they're number one and we just need to roll that commitment over.
'We had a good win last week, we came down here and play the competition leaders and as I said could have, should have, would have won.
'We didn't because of a few things and I respect Ricky and the Raiders, they hung in there and that's what good sides do. But we just got to stick at it for the rest of the year.'