St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan has admitted the first half of their traditional Anzac Day clash against the Sydney Roosters 'cooked' his team.
The Dragons went into the halftime break with just 29 per cent of the ball, and at one point approaching the 20 minute mark, that number was less than 20 per cent.
The Red V, as a result, had to do a stack of tackling and, heading into halftime, found themselves behind 20 points to 6.
It was an unsalvageable gap in the second half with energy and inensity non-existent, the Dragons eventually crumbling to a 46 points to 18 loss at a packed Sydney Football Stadium.
Flanagan, who had watched his team climb into the top eight over the previous fortnight with wins over the Gold Coast Titans and Manly Sea Eagles, said it was a disappointing first half, and he could see issues with his team's ability to come back at halftime.
"Really disappointed, especially where we have been the last couple of weeks and the style of football we can play," Flanagan said during his post-match press conference.
"The first half just cooked us. We had 29 per cent of possession at halftime and you hope that it swings, and you hope you have some energy left to make it swing, but credit to them, they applied pressure and I could just tell at halftime, we were looking for answers and a bit out on our feet.
"Some of the things we have been so good at, like our tackle control, we were just off today. Hopefully it's just one of those things that it's hard to maintain form and we just didn't get it right today, especially in the first half.
"They ran harder, got field position and put up better kicks than us at the end. We were kicking from inside our 40, I think we scored a try with 3 per cent of possession, but as I said, at halftime, with only 29 per cent of possession, it just killed us."
Asked if there were things the Dragons could have done better, the coach admitted a lot of the position they found themselves in was self inflicted.
"Yes, definitely. There was a couple of errors on Tackle 1, errors with the football not getting to kicks. Once again, that's self inflicted. Some of it is well done to the Roosters, some of it is definitely us," the experienced mentor added.
Flanagan, who is in his second season with the Dragons, admitted his side should have done far better during a ten-minute period when Roosters five-eighth and man of the match Sandon Smith was sin binned for a high shot on Lachlan Ilias.
"Without a doubt. We threw a ball to the ground there [when they had 12]. Our skill has been good, our execution on our edges has been good, but today, on that occassion, the ball goes to ground and then they go up the other end and I think they kicked a penalty goal, scored a try and we didn't have the ball while they were down to 12 men," he said.
The Dragons now have a long turnaround before clashing with the Wests Tigers on Saturday evening at Magic Round next weekend.
