St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor refused to blame match officials for his side’s enthralling 18-14 defeat to fierce local rivals Cronulla on Friday night.
The depleted Dragons, without captain Gareth Widdop and star fullback Josh Dugan, put in a statistically almost perfect performance at Kogarah against their neighbours from the shire but were edged out in a see-sawing contest.
St George Illawarra completed 93 per cent of their sets and made only four errors. They dominated through the middle, took the lead into half-time and were in front going into the final 10 minutes.
But a number of questionable decisions went against the Dragons. The most damaging were two decisions that led to both of Cronulla’s second half tries.
The first, a Ricky Leutele pass that looked to go forward for a Sosaia Feki try in the corner. The second, a Wade Graham knock on in the play the ball that led to Feki’s second and the match-winner.
McGregor chose not to use the decisions as excuses but admitted to feeling frustrated.
“The last two weeks I spoke to Tony [Archer] about decisions and I think 11 out of the 19 I sent away were incorrect [decisions],” he said.
“You could all see the decisions tonight. Some were pretty tough. You usually get your 50-50s throughout the year and I’m not going to use it as an excuse but the last three weeks have been pretty tough.
“They’re human so they’re going to make bad decisions or wrong calls. That’s just part of the game. When it costs you a result it hurts. Players make errors and coaches make errors and referees make errors. It’s consecutive weeks, so you’d like your luck to go your way now and again.”
As well as being without Widdop and Dugan, St George Illawarra lost dynamic centre Euan Aitken to a potentially serious hamstring injury. Aitken had a problem with his hamstring which kept him out of the City-Country game last weekend and was forced off after 20 minutes against Cronulla.
It was the Dragons’ third defeat in a row after tough losses to heavyweights the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne. They could slip outside the top four if results go against them this weekend.
They had plenty of stars. Paul Vaughan was outstanding in an all-round impressive display from the Dragons’ pack. Tyson Frizell, Joel Thompson, Russell Packer and Jack de Belin were all strong.
And McGregor, and their fans, will be heartened with the resilience they showed.
Including the rep weekend, most of the Dragons players had played four games in 19 days. In McGregor’s own words, they need this weekend off.
“There’s improvement in our footy team as well and we’re building,” he said.
“We’re not there yet. Cronulla and Melbourne in the last two games, obviously they were in last year’s grand final. We’ve got some work to do but the boys are willing to put the hard work in during the week so they can go out and play the type of footy you saw tonight.”
