Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan admits being left frustrated by an injury run that has prevented him from fielding his best line-up over the entire first half of the NRL season.
The Sharks’ six-game winning streak came to an abrupt end after being comprehensively beaten 22-14 by an in-form, but depleted, South Sydney side on Friday night.
With Flanagan already without Queensland star Valentine Holmes, the Sharks were forced to play Edrick Lee at fullback after news Josh Dugan would be sidelined for up to a month with a leg injury.
It is the second time this year the former St George Illawarra star has been scratched through injury, and comes just as key men Paul Gallen, Andrew Fifita, Luke Lewis and Wade Graham returned.
“It is frustrating that we can’t keep that side on the field for a long period,” Flanagan said.
“We got Lewie, Gal, Wade back, and Duges and some other players are out. We just need to roll with it, and we won some games there when a lot of players were out.
“We’ve got a good squad and I’m confident in the squad we’ve got.”
The Sharks have circled their round 16 clash against the Warriors for Dugan’s return.
“He was complaining he thought he had a cork in his lower leg. We got a scan on Tuesday and it showed he’s got a stress fracture in the non-weight bearing bone in his lower leg,” Flanagan said.
One week after almost cracking the half-century against Newcastle, Flanagan was upset with how his side was dominated in almost every facet of the game against the Rabbitohs.
They didn’t score their first try until Jesse Ramien powered over in the 75th minute.
“We were average tonight, very frustrating. We couldn’t get any rhythm, we couldn’t get any momentum. We were our own worst enemies,” Flanagan said.
“It was just everything compared to what they did, wasn’t good enough. They kicked better, ran harder… in all those areas, they won.”
Flanagan also played down any concerns over another concussion to Graham, who failed to return after clashing with Sam Burgess’ knee midway through the first half.
“I know concussions are a bit of a concern, but they’ve been pretty spaced out. He did get a pretty good whack with a knee in the head. There’s not much you can do about it,” he said.
“We just need to monitor him. He’s fine in the dressing room now. He only failed one part of the test, his balance part. He answered all his questions and so on.”
