Dragons coach Shane Flanagan has said there must be a “football god out there” after his side were able to bravely hold on and avoid yet another heartbreaking loss.
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The Dragons repelled a final Broncos challenge in the dying seconds to win 30-26, after leading by ten points with five minutes to play.
They’ve been in similar positions before this season but generally, the Dragons have been able to close games out.
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Three of their losses have been by just one point, and Flanagan admitted that his team’s prior form made for some nervous moments when the Broncos were attacking the line in the final minute.
“I was saying to myself surely this can’t happen to us again. There must be some sort of football god out there,” Flanagan said.
“Just the last couple of minutes we put ourselves under an enormous amount of pressure but great club spirit and team spirit got us home.”
Flanagan said how proud he was of his team given the adversity they faced throughout the 80 minutes.
The Dragons lost back rower Dylan Egan in the first five minutes with a serious knee injury. Later in the game, they were reduced to 12 men for ten minutes when Jaydn Su’A was sin binned.
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Trailing 14-6 at the time, the Dragons would have been forgiven for letting in a try or two. Instead, they scored two tries of their own despite the one man disadvantage.
“I was concerned. It was really important timing (when Su’A was sin binned),” Flanagan said.
“It doesn’t happen too often (two tries with 12 men) but it’s a show of character that they went after it and I thought we went after it a bit.
“We needed to be confident at half time and I thought we were even though we were down.
“It was a really good sign because we have been in some dark places.
“We’ve competed really hard all year but we haven’t found that last little bit on some occasions. We’ve lost three games by one point but tonight we found that competitive edge and a way to win.”
The win is the Dragons’ fourth of the season and moves them up to 9th on the NRL ladder.
