Most good coaches have a habit of taking the pressure off their players, especially after a heavy loss.
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That could explain what Shane Flanagan was thinking when he stated his desire to beat his former club Cronulla Sharks in St George Illawarra Dragons next outing.
Interestingly the comment came in the immediate aftermath of the Dragons horror Anzac Day loss to the Sydney Roosters.
"I don't want to make excuses, I just want to get on and learn from it," the Dragons coach said after the 60-18 loss to the Roosters.
"Next week comes real quick and we play a team from down the Shire that I am really interested in beating.
"It's been marked in the calendar for awhile."
Flanagan coached the Sharks to the 2016 premiership before quitting on the eve of the 2019 season after he was deregistered by the NRL for flouting his 2014 suspension for his part in the club's peptides scandal.
"I won a comp there. I don't think they have won one since, have they?" he said in the press conference after the Roosters loss.
"My job is to get these boys back up and whether we are playing the Sharks or whoever we are playing, my job is to get the boys back to where we were in the last couple of weeks.
"We've gone backwards and I got to get them up no matter who the opposition is.
"it's not about me, I don't care about me, and I don't want it to be about me, I want it to be about the team and the club."
The good news for the Dragons is they have 10 days to prepare for a clash against the Sharks at PointsBet Stadium.
It comes after St George Illawarra played three games in 11 days.
Flanagan said while this was not ideal, it was no excuse for the Dragons poor showing against the Tricolours.
"We're terribly disappointed and that's not the Dragons. You saw last week what the Dragons can do. We hit the ground with a big thud today and came back to earth a bit.....and the challenge that this group has got is to grow and learn from this," he said.
"The Roosters are a professional outfit, they've been together for a long period of time and they've got some really good athletes, and when they get on a roll like they did and possession was out of control, they were marching up the field putting attacking kicks in, getting repeat sets, it's hard to handle.
"That's the system and the process and the cycle that they got into and it's a tick for them and congratulations to them, and we need to learn from it.
"We've done that as well this year.
"There's not that much difference in the Roosters at their best and the Dragons at their best, but congratulations to them today. They did a really good job and we were poor, no excuses."
St George Illawarra will definitely miss the services of Mosese Suli for the Sharks game after the centre was ruled out of the remainder of the Anzac Day clash after a head clash with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves off the kickoff.
Dragons fullback Tyrell Sloan was also reported for an apparent kick to the face of Sam Walker on Anzac Day, and is also in danger of being ruled out of the Sharks game.
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
