Shane Flanagan admitted there is a concern Jack de Belin could miss his final game for the Dragons after he was place on report for a hip drop tackle in the 40-24 loss to the Sea Eagles.
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De Belin played his 251st game for the Dragons against the Sea Eagles and it could be his last before he moves to the Eels under Jason Ryles next season.
In the 60th minute de Belin came down on the back of Manly forward Toafofoa Sipley’s leg and was placed on report, although he wasn’t sin-binned like Sipley was for a similar incident.
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“There’s always concerns when you’re put on report, I only looked at it once, I’ll need a couple of angles,” Flanagan said.
“Jack is a really good defender, his technique [means] he gets in there, and sometimes you get spat out the back. We’ll have to have a look at it.”
Flanagan was proud of his team to getting it back to a one try contest in the second half, but conceded his team got tired at the back end of the game.
“Disappointing in the end,” Flanagan said.
“I thought we fought back pretty well to get to 22-18 and then two last tackle tries, just they kicked out again.
“We showed some signs there, but probably just a bit tight at the end.”
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Flanagan urged his team to learn how to ice try-scoring opportunities to build confidence in games after they failed to convert a Clint Gutherson break into a try.
“I’d like to think that if we fought a little bit harder, we could have got some results,” Flanagan said.
“Gutho made a break there in the first half and if we scored a try there, we go up 12-6 and they go down the other end.
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“It’s been like a bit of the story of the year for us, so we should have scored that try and go out 12-6 and be playing with some confidence, but we don’t score that try and they go up the other end.
“That wasn’t the reason we won or lost tonight, but things like that we need to nail.”
The Dragons may go up against a full strength Panthers side next week and Flanagan wants his team to go out with their heads held high.
“We’ve got to go out next week, playing Penrith and who knows what team they put out, but we’ll make sure we go out with some respect,” Flanagan said.
