Dragons vs. Sea Eagles: Tom Trbojevic silenced as St George ...

St George Illawarra were repeatedly sucker punched by the Cowboys last week when they narrowly missed out on an opportunity to score, only for their opponents to race up the other end and punish them.

Shane Flanagan appealed for more resilience within his team as a result but when they bombed a chance early and the Sea Eagles raced up the other end to score through a miracle Tom Trbojevic offload, you got the sense his words had fallen on deaf ears.

Tom Trbojevic silenced as Dragons grab important win against Sea Eagles

The fullback looked in a mood in the Saturday sunshine in front of a bumper crowd in Wollongong, however the feel-good factor soon deserted him and just about every one of his Manly teammates as they descended into an error-strewn display.  

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Trbojevic produced two handling errors, while Daly Cherry-Evans was also uncharacteristically sloppy as the Dragons fought their way back from behind to establish a deserved 14-6 lead at the break.

"Fundamentals hurt us today," Seibold bemoaned.

"On both sides of the footy we let ourselves down and, in this competition, you get what you deserve.

"We were outplayed by the Dragons and that was really clear for everyone to see. We were second by a fair distance."

The Sea Eagles had made six errors inside the first 25 minutes of a messy clash with the Dragons also not immune from a mistake or two as Ben Hunt shanked a kick off his shin into the crowd.

The fact that kick didn’t register as the worst of the half told the story of the match with Zac Lomax taking that honour when he skewed a conversion attempt horribly wide of the far post.

At the break, Flanagan and Anthony Seibold appealed for their sides to hold onto the ball with the visitors completing just 10 of 17 sets in a rotten first stanza.

Manly duly knocked on in their first set of the second period while the Dragons failed to complete their first two sets.

It was a sign of things to come with the Dragons able to complete just two of their first seven sets in the second half.

Yet despite their errors with the ball, they were still better than Manly with a brilliant spell of goal line defence, which saw them repel Manly for three straight sets, proving pivotal.

"We weren’t that great – especially in the second half with our completion rate being awful – but we showed some real resilience," Flanagan said.

The Dragons’ defensive solidity was finally on full show against an out-of-sorts Sea Eagles as they put the nightmare of conceding 84 points across the past two rounds behind them.

Tyrell Sloan did his part in defence while he also grabbed his second of the match to complete a tidy display, yet the same certainly couldn’t be said for his opposite number as Turbo’s difficult afternoon continued.

"What are you doing Tom!" Greg Alexander said in astonishment after the fullback produced a forward pass out of dummy-half for his fourth error of the match.  

"After the start he’s had to the game – he produced arguably the best piece of play of the season with his offload."

Shane Flanagan press conference: Dragons coach on Tom Trbojevic

Flanagan used his intel from his previous stint as Seibold's assistant at Manly well to limit Trbojevic's impact on the game and blunt the opposition's attack. 

"We had a focus on him," Flanagan said after the No.1 finished with one try assist but four errors. 

"He's a key player for them. He's down short sides, he's around the ruck - usually, everything Manly do Tom is around it.

"So, we had a real focus on limiting his time and space by getting to him quickly and I think we did a pretty good job with that." 

Seibold’s attacking philosophy had been on full display last week early against the Eels, but it was absent against the Dragons with repeated errors – most of the time completely basic in nature – leaving the side drained of energy in order to defend all 16 of them.

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There was very little of the expansive play out of yardage which has made the Sea Eagles so entertaining to watch to start the season, with the grind suiting Flanagan’s side who managed to defend their way to the win despite a late consolation try from Haumole Olakau'atu.

"It was an important game for us," a beaming Flanagan said.

"After starting the season well, I thought we fell back into some bad habits and traits and the past two games weren’t what we needed.

"So, it was really good to come here at home, in front of a good crowd and against a good football team and play what I think is our style of footy.

"I’ve got a good football team here. I know it, I’ve just got to convince them."