They cheered when Toby Couchman and Jaydn Su’a shoved Xavier Coates back into the in-goal area. They cheered when Moses Suli shaped up to Cameron Munster. They cheered their latest debutant Dylan Egan.
They even cheered their team’s first penalty, which did not arrive until half an hour into the game. St George Illawarra caused an old-fashioned boilover against the Melbourne Storm in what could only be described as an old-fashioned stinker. But the 6211 Dragons fans who braved the wet on Saturday sure made the afternoon fun.
The Dragons deserved credit for the way they kept turning away the Storm on their own line. They made 46 tackles inside their own 20m, and were on the wrong end of a 9-4 penalty count. Coach Shane Flanagan vowed to put his players through hell during the bye round after they dropped their first two games.
He watched the second half from the sidelines, and while happy for the first two points for the season, described the 80 minutes as “very, very stressful”. “We did a lot of good stuff, the last 10 minutes we still had a few errors in us ..
. we had a bit of resolve about us today, so it was great,” Flanagan said. “Good sides like Melbourne and Penrith don’t put themselves under pressure.
I think we’re a good footy side, but we can’t put ourselves under pressure like we did today. We can’t make 46 tackles on our own tryline week in week out. We need to be smart.
” The Dragons do not have the strongest roster, but they have plenty of .
