Dragons throwaway finals berth in final-round capitulation

A week after resurrecting their finals hopes with a gritty two-point win over Penrith, Sunday’s 26-20 loss to the 12th-placed Bulldogs was a sorry end to an ultimately disappointing season.

It was a fortnight that put their season in a nutshell – an impressive win one week, a meek surrender the next. The equation was simple – win and you’re in – and they couldn’t do it.

They had everything to play for but, on this day, the Dogs simply wanted more, whether it was Josh Reynolds playing 18 minutes on a busted ankle or Will Hopoate’s 61st-minute try-saver on a runaway Josh Dugan.

Throw in prop Aiden Tolman’s athletic support act up the middle for the equaliser with 14 minutes to play or much-maligned hooker Michael Lichaa’s 73rd-minute match-winner and you could’ve been forgiven for thinking it was the Dogs playing for a finals berth.

It sees the Dragons go without finals action for the fifth time in six seasons and for, for a campaign that started with so much promise, it might just be the worst finals fade-out of the lot.

Coach Paul McGregor was all but lost for words to describe the performance post-match.

“We’re all feeling absolutely gutted in the sheds. We’re more than disappointed, we’re actually shattered not to play finals footy,” McGregor said.

“I thought we found energy at times during the game but we looked a bit flat. There’s no excuses.

“It shouldn’t have come down to today, but it did, and we let a team that couldn’t score points score 26 on us. It wasn’t good enough.

“It [hurts] when you’re points for and against are third in the competition which means we can attack and we can defend, we’re just not winning close games.

“There were six games this year that come to mind that could’ve gone each way and we didn’t win any of them. This competition is that tight, when you don’t win the close ones continually, you don’t play finals footy.

“We all start preseason in October to play finals footy. It’s why fans support us and it’s why players play and unfortunately we’re not there.”

If reports are to be believed, the match may well have been Des Hasler’s last at the helm of the Bulldogs while skipper James Graham also went out a winner against the side he’s set to join next season.

Josh Reynolds opened the scoring after just four minutes, winning the race to a kick from Brenko Lee. The departing cult favourite injured his ankle in the process, briefly battling on before eventually succumbing in what was his last appearance for the club.

The Dragons hit back 10 minutes later after Gareth Widdop deflected his own bomb out of the hands of Hopoate with Joel Thompson on hand to collect the scraps and post his side’s first four-pointer.

The Dogs had a handy 14-6 lead on he back of tries to Hopoate and Marcelo Montoya before Jason Nightingale’s try two minutes before halftime pegged the margin back to two at halftime.

TheDragons took the lead for the first time through Matt Dufty 14 minutes after the resumption with penalty goal to Widdop pushing the margin out to a converted try with 54th-minute.

It looked likely to be enough before Hopoate broke the Dragons open and found Tolman in support for the Dogs fourth.

Mbye nailed the conversion to level up at 20-all with 13 minutes to play and when Michael Lichaa crossed from dummy-half with eight minutes to left, the Dragons fate was sealed.

They pressed for a late equaliser but, like their season, they left their run too late.