St George Illawarra Dragons' head coach Shane Flanagan has revealed his halftime speech to his team during their come from behind win against the Penrith Panthers on Saturday afternoon "wasn't pretty".
The Dragons, coming off an abysmal second half against the Canterbury Bulldogs last weekend, found themselves behind against the Panthers after an abysmal first half.
The game, held at the foot of the mountains, saw both teams missing talent through injury and State of Origin selection, although the Panthers were particularly decimated without a prop on the interchange bench.
After trailing ten points to nil at halftime, the Dragons scored two tries (one each for fringe forward Toby Couchman and fullback Tyrell Sloan) within the first seven minutes of the second half, before capping the game with a 68th-minute try to back Mathew Feagai and a 72nd-minute try to second-rower Raymond Faitala-Mariner.
Flanagan said his spray at halftime wasn't pretty.
“It wasn't pretty, was it,” Flanagan said during his post-game press conference.
“Especially to a few individuals. I was really disappointed the way we played in the first half, just turning the ball over, it was awful … we just didn't give ourselves a chance.”
Captain Jack de Belin admitted it was what the team needed.
“It was good. It was needed. He was only speaking the truth. It was honest. As you've seen we've got the result," the stand-in captain, who was replacing Ben Hunt, said.
Flanagan admitted the tactic of blasting his team at halftime wouldn't work every week though.
“You've probably only got two or three you can use a season. I've used one," the coach said.
Flanagan, who has a strong coaching record when away at the foot of the mountains from his days at the Cronulla Sharks, said he was happy with his side's character in turning around the scoreline.
“In the end, we turned it around in the second half. I'm just glad I've got a team with a bit of character," he said.
“Some other teams might have thought it's a bit too hard. We're out in Penrith. We're down 10-0, this is too hard tonight. They showed good character and got back up in the second half. So I'm real happy I've got a team with character.”
The win leaves the Dragons equal with the bottom end of the top eight on the provisional NRL ladder, but at most two points out at the end of Round 13, with the Red V to clash with the Wests Tigers in the opening game of Round 14 just 48 hours after Origin 1.