Dragons captain Ben Hunt has labelled St George Illawarra’s 40-8 defeat to Cronulla as “very embarrassing”.
So poor were the Dragons at Kogarah Oval on Sunday evening that scores of St George Illawarra fans began leaving with about 20 minutes remaining in the local derby clash.
The Sharks only took a 12-8 lead into half-time, but Craig Fitzgibbon’s men piled on five second-half tries to the hosts’ zero.
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“I thought it was very embarrassing. I don’t think there’d be a guy in our side that could put their hand up and say they played well in the second half,” Hunt said in the press conference.
“To dish that up in front of your home fans isn’t good enough … It’s very disappointing. It’s not going to go away now.”
The Dragons have now dished up two horrible second-half performances in as many weeks.
They led the Broncos 16-8 at half-time in round three, but suffered a 40-18 loss.
The scores were still level at 18-18 with less than 10 minutes left on the clock in Brisbane, before three of the Broncos’ dynamite attacking weapons — Reece Walsh, Selwyn Cobbo and Ezra Mam — ran in four tries between them.
Nicho Hynes was the chief destroyer on Sunday, chalking up three try assists, five linebreak assists, four tackle busts, four offloads and 123 run metres.
Ronaldo Mulitalo had a field day playing outside Hynes and Matt Moylan, crossing for a hat-trick.
Hunt said he had no answers when asked about the Dragons’ second-half fades.
“We’re getting to half-time in a good position and we have good chats at half-time and we come out and seem to be asleep,” Hunt said.
If Anthony Griffin wants to remain as Dragons coach beyond this year, Sunday’s performance was a pitiful bid for retention.
St George Illawarra officials told Griffin this week that he would have to reapply for his job if he wanted to stay in the role, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Chammas.
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Hunt said the club board’s decision regarding the coach was “disappointing”, before defending the veteran mentor.
“He’s not the one out on the field out there — it’s us,” the halfback said.
“We were the ones missing tackles in the second half.”
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Hunt also lamented that the board’s decision regarding Griffin hadn’t stayed in house, before denying the coach’s situation was affecting the team.
“It seems to me like the only people talking about it is the outside — we haven’t talked about it,” said the Queensland Maroons representative.
“It’s not internal.”
The Dragons will meet the Dolphins in Wollongong next Saturday evening.
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