Dragons interim coach Dean Young is adamant his side has improved since Shane Flanagan’s exit despite two heavy losses in his two games at the helm.
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The Dragons were blown off the park by the Knights in the first half, trailing 32-0 at the break. There were some good signs in the second stanza though with both sides scoring two tries.
Young admitted the first half was “hard to watch” but was somewhat pleased at full time after challenging his struggling side in the sheds.
“I thought we got off to a good start. We completed our first seven sets and we were in the cycle, and then we gave a penalty away for being offside, and then we got the edge defence wrong and they went down and scored the other end,” Young said.
“From there, it got pretty ugly in the first half. It was pretty hard to sit through, but I asked it for a response from the players at halftime. It was 32-0 at halftime and we lost the second half, 12-10, so I’m happy with the response.”
Young was then asked whether he’d seen improvement in his side since taking over, with the interim coach responding firmly that he has, although conceded it could take time to see the fruits of their labour.
“I’ve seen improvement already and I could show you that through video and training and stuff like that, that we’ve improved in a week and a half by the way we’re training,” Young said.
“However long it takes to get on the field, well that’s anyone’s guess.”
A reporter then twice asked Young to specify. On both occasions, the Dragons premiership winner replied with just one word.
“Training.”
The Dragons’ halves today of Kade Reed and Lhykan King-Togia have a combined age of 40 while the side’s forward pack are mostly made up of guys in their early 20s.
Young was very pleased with some of those younger guys, believing the inexperienced players didn’t do enough to support at times.
“It’s a pretty big ask and I’m putting them in that position,” Young said, referring to his halves.
“The theory behind that is that they could potentially unlock the people around them, and that’s what we need to happen. We need the more experienced players to be playing well and help us get out of this situation.
“I feel for our forwards, our young forwards. I thought our forwards did a really, really good job in different parts of the game.”
The Dragons were torn to shreds by the Knights’ backline. Newcastle wingers Greg Marzhew and Dom Young combined for 12 line breaks with fullback Kalyn Ponga recording seven line break assists.
Young wanted to see more from his outside men, believing they failed to stand up for the players inside them.
He also said he felt for the Red V’s passionate fanbase, who have had to witness their side lose 13 straight games dating back to last season.
“Of the 47 missed tackles we had tonight, 32 come from outside backs. 14 line breaks through our backs. That’s not good,” Young said.
“I feel for our fans to sit through another scoreline like that.
“Times are tough at the moment in the world and people are working really hard and spending their hard-earned money to come watch us play and they’re not getting the results and some of the results have been quite ugly to be honest. So I feel for them.”
Originally published as Young’s puzzling one-word answer to claims Dragons have ‘improved’ despite another heavy defeat
