The struggling St George Illawarra Dragons have been burned by a pair of ridiculous ‘coach killer’ mistakes that left commentators absolutely stunned.
Early in the second half of their clash against the Raiders in Canberra, the Dragons led 4-0. But they would quickly give that lead away with a pair of woeful mistakes in quick succession, first a bizarre lifting tackle from Jack de Belin before a Jack Bird hit on a kicker in flight.
Tom Starling ducked into a tackle, putting his head low and placing one hand on the ground. Then De Belin arrived late and bizarrely opted to lift the attacker’s legs, taking Starling well above the horizontal and into a forward roll.
De Belin conceded a penalty and was placed on report, but was very fortunate to avoid a sin bin.
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In commentary for Fox League, Warren Smith: “I can’t believe I’ve just seen that! What was he thinking there Shane?”
Shane Flanagan replied: “Well he wasn’t! He definitely wasn’t thinking. It’s a silly lift of the leg, puts him in a dangerous position.”
“Given what we know about the trigger finger the refs have for sin binning, he’s lucky not to be sent to the sin bin,” Smith added.
This season has seen the most sin bins ever through seven rounds, with a record 43 sin-bins compared to 28 sin bins in the first seven rounds of last season and 16 in 2021.
The Dragons were immediately burned for the foolish action, as Seb Kris burst through the line on the following set to deliver
Flanagan added it was “uncharacteristic and silly” from De Belin, while Smith called it “a real coach killer”.
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Jack Bird, who was caught off-side earlier in the set that saw the De Belin tackle, gave away another foolish penalty just a couple of minutes later.
Bird slammed into Jamal Fogarty while the Raider was in the air after making a kick, shoving the kicker into the ground. Canberra’s Jack Croker kicked the resulting penalty to take an 8-4 lead.
“With all the talk around Anthony Griffin, all you can do as a coach is get your team ready and then you watch your players give away absolutely harebrained penalties like the last two,” Smith said.
“I can’t argue with you there Warren,” Flanagan said.
