By MICHAEL BYRNES
CRONULLA coach Shane Flanagan attended an NRL finals post-game press conference, as a paid beneficiary of the rugby league industry, and presented no other reason for his team’s defeat than officiating error. Days afterward, he and his captain are still shamelessly attempting to excuse his embarrassing performance.
Flanagan said his team’s attack was a bit clunky. That was as close to genuine analysis of the actual contest that Flanagan came. A quick look at the game stats tells a difference story, thus:
- Completions (Cowboys 80 per cent to 60 per cent);
- Completed sets (Cowboys 40-26);
- Line breaks (Cowboys 5-3);
- Offloads (Cowboys 7-4);
- Metres gained (Cowboys 1934-1721);
- Missed tackles (Sharks 34-15);
- Errors (Sharks 17-10)
Yet Flanagan and his sour grapes took a classic NRL semi-final and turned it into a diatribe against the referees. What a goose! I was half-expecting a Sharks press release the following morning to the effect that:
Shane Flanagan regrets and apologises for his comments focusing on the refereeing performance in yesterday’s Sharks-Cowboys semi-final, and would like to congratulate the Cowboys on their hard-fought victory. While disappointed with a number of decisions, the club appreciates the difficult task that the referees are assigned. Shane’s post-game comments were borne out of genuine disappointment with the result and do not reflect Shane or the club’s true appraisal of the game or the outcome.
Cronulla, if you still want to put that one out, feel free to use those words.
However, instead of that dignified course of action, Flanagan and Gallen went to ground, until Tuesday, when they released statements and further justifications which can only be described as brain-dead.
Gallen said “People are saying ‘what about the missed tackles’, but they’re irrelevant because the score was 14-all at fulltime.” Where to start? Paul, the missed tackles weren’t irrelevant. They led to the score being 14-all at fulltime. If your team didn’t miss those tackles, assumedly the score wouldn’t have been 14-all at full time and the result wouldn’t have been at the mercy of a 50-50 call that could take the game away from you! Really! Was that a serious argument?
Flanagan said “We just questioned the decisions and I think I’ve got a right to be able to do that. Does that damage grassroots? Is that disrespecting referees? Not in my view.” Where to start? Shane, you’ve spent your entire press conference assigning sole blame for your defeat at the hands of the referees, when your team has missed 34 tackles. Not only is it a completely deluded and nonsensical viewpoint, it sets a clear example to the entire rugby league community that the referee’s whistle is not final, not to be respected, and can be challenged via any means available to the aggrieved party.
Shane Flanagan and Paul Gallen have spent most of their NRL careers arguing with and railing against the governing body and anyone else who saw fault with their conduct, and only ever accepting responsibility for their actions when dragged kicking and screaming by the rule of law. They have set an extremely poor example for the grassroots of the game and the rugby league community as a whole. The quicker their tenure comes to an end the better.
