Not even a contentious penalty try could stop Dragons from sinking Sharks

A hotly disputed penalty try ruling did not come back to haunt St George Illawarra in their spirited 22-14 win over Cronulla.

Now, cue the “please explain” calls as to what Dragons winger Tyrell Sloan was meant to do when contesting a kick involving Cronulla rival Teig Wilton on Saturday afternoon.

The derby clash was barely 15 minutes old when Braydon Trindall put up a kick, and Sloan and Wilton leapt into the air.

The 11,861 fans inside Jubilee Stadium thought Wilton had caught the ball before Sloan and Clint Gutherson did an excellent job to hold him up.

The decision was sent upstairs, referee Ash Klein told bunker official Chris Butler that “I can’t see the screen from here”, before Butler ruled Sloan had gone from contesting the ball to trying to tackle Wilton in the middle of the air.

As a result, the Sharks were awarded a penalty try.

“He would have got it down had Tyrell not tried to tackle him,” Klein told confused Dragons players.

What was Sloan meant to do? He has already been told by the Dragons he is free to find a new club for next year, and had he stood back and not tried to stop Wilton, there was a fair chance he would have been dropped next weekend.

The Dragons have lost their share of games by close margins this year, including defeats involving refereeing decisions. Who can remember the Dogs being awarded a fresh set before scoring the winner in the 79th minute just last month?

Fortunately, the contentious four-pointer did not cost the Dragons.

Fortunately, a raft of other calls did not cruel the contest, including Sloan playing the advantage when he never ran further than 10m after a Siosifa Talakai knock-on.

The game dragged on for what felt like forever due to five second-half captain’s challenges.

When asked about some decisions, coach Shane Flanagan said: “Wow. That’s all I can say. I’ll have a busy day on Monday because they’re making it so hard for us.

“I’m just really disappointed with a lot of decisions tonight.”

Pressed on the penalty try, Flanagan said: “There have been plenty of them this year. The bunker ruled it a penalty try, the referee on the field called ‘no try’. There were a lot of other ones I was frustrated with.”

Cronulla blew a golden chance to finish the weekend as high as fifth on the ladder. Depending on results, they might sit in eighth.

The win was a fitting way to finish the week for the Red V, who a day earlier announced the re-signing of Flanagan until the end of 2028.

It was a memorable debut for Hayden Buchanan, yet another to hail from Gerringong – rookie Dragons Dylan Egan and Hamish Stewart are also from the south coast town. He scored a try late in the first half, and will be in debt to skipper Clint Gutherson for passing to him when he could have easily gone himself.

Flanagan singled out Stewart for praise after punching out 80 minutes in the back row.

Cronulla host the Gold Coast next week, then have the bye, before matches against Newcastle and Canterbury.

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said of the defeat: “I thought it was a really poor-disciplined performance from us; we opened the door, showed we were susceptible, and they took it.”

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