The Dragons faltered at the death in their golden point loss to local rivals the Sharks but the joint venture’s woes didn’t end there.
The Dragons may struggle to name a 21-man squad for next week’s game after another horror night at Kogarah in which the home side conceded defeat to Cronulla at the death.
Already without the suspended quartet of Mikaele Ravalawa, Tariq Sims, Tyrell Fuimaono and Josh McGuire, the Red V are facing a crisis after Ramsey, Jaiyden Hunt and Max Feagai all failed their HIAs.
To make matters worse, Vaughan, Poasa Faamausili and Josh Kerr are all on report, while the Sharks also had five players earn the ire of the officials.
It turns out it takes more than a week to change tackle techniques after another three players were sent to the sin bin for high shots as Chad Townsend helped the Sharks edge the depleted Dragons in golden point.
Plenty of people thought the crackdown would simply disappear after last week’s scenes at Magic Round, but the NRL isn’t bowing down to the backlash and is standing firm in a bid to protect players from head trauma.
Paul Vaughan was the first to go after he collected Will Chambers high midway through the first half with a tackle that probably wouldn’t have been penalised a fortnight ago.
Referee Ben Cummins didn’t notice the high contact at first, but decided to send the Dragons prop for 10 minutes after Chambers stumbled for a few seconds, allowing the Bunker to intervene.
There was less debate in the shadows of halftime when Mawene Hiroti was marched for a high shot that knocked Cody Ramsey out of the game and denied what would have been one of the tries of the season.
The fill-in Dragons fullback failed his HIA, sparking a mass reshuffle to a team that was already missing roughly $3 million in talent after last week’s suspensions and an untimely injury to speed machine Matt Dufty.
Fans may have been divided on the first two tackles, but no one was complaining when Josh Dugan was sent to the bin for belting Billy Burns across the nose with a tackle that should have seen him sent off.
“You don’t need to be confused here. He’s gone. That’s a poor play from Josh. The players have had long enough to prepare after last week,” Fox League’s Braith Anasta said in commentary.
There was more drama and confusion to come as Briton Nikora collected Jack Bird high with seven minutes to go but remained on the field. From the ensuing set, Vaughan stayed down and was awarded a penalty from in front after Teig Wilton was pinged for a crusher tackle.
Jack Bird levelled the scores at 12-12, but neither team could win it in regulation as Corey Norman sprayed two field-goal attempts in the final few minutes.
GOLDEN DRAMA
The high tackles overshadowed a low-quality match that was saved by a dramatic finish that saw Townsend go from villain to hero to win it in golden point.
The Sharks halfback had a horrible night as he dropped the ball three times and had two field goal attempts charged down, but the Townsville-bound playmaker found a way to win it at the same ground his right boot let him down against Canberra.
There are still huge issues at Cronulla, but at least Josh Hannay can finally celebrate his first win after enduring a horror few weeks in charge of a team that has shown very little since he took over from John Morris.