Flanagan lists tenfold pain of cruel defeat

FURIOUS Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan launched a withering attack on underpressure referee Ashley Klein moments after his side dramatically crashed out of the finals race.

Only a day after Parramatta’s Brad Arthur and Manly’s Trent Barrett ripped into the whistleblowers after controversial defeats, Flanagan took aim at Klein and assistant Gavin Badger.

North Queensland produced a gutsy effort to defeat Cronulla 15-14 in a contentious and absorbing extra-time elimination final at Allianz Stadium to kill off the Sharks’ dream of back-to-back premierships.

It took 85 minutes for the Cowboys to hit the front. Fiveeighth Michael Morgan landed a field goal in the first half of the 10-minute extratime period.

The Cowboys then hung on to snatch an unlikely win, built on the back of a rampaging performance from forward Jason Taumalolo and the composure and class of Morgan.

Flanagan’s outburst came after he took the extraordinary step of approaching NRL head of football Brian Canavan post-match to discuss a heap of contentious moments.

The Sharks coach arrived at the post-match press conference with a handwritten list of 10 alleged indiscretions.

He was filthy but made a point of not wanting to incur a $10,000 fine from the NRL for criticising referees.

“It was disgraceful,” Flanagan said. “I know how Trent Barrett feels. I have spoken to Brian Canavan, I’m not paying any money here, I won’t be getting sucked into that.

“We just want to get it right, or close to right. Let the teams decide it. Crucial decisions, all wrong.

“I listened to Trent, his team is out of the competition. We talk about the game and wanting to get people here. We have bigger issues.

“We’ve got to fix this up. It’s really, really disappointing. I’ve never seen anything like it. In my view, it impacted on the result.

“Imagine if that was a grand final. An 11-5 penalty count (against Cronulla). I thought we were brave, both teams played some tough footy.”

Flanagan questioned the sin-binning of James Maloney on the stroke of halftime for taking out Cowboys forward Ethan Lowe as he chased through a grubber kick.

There was debate as to whether Maloney’s offence warranted a sin-binning.

North Queensland kicked a penalty goal and scored a try with Maloney off the field, before weary Sharks players then had to play 10 minutes of extra-time.

“It wasn’t a professional foul. It was a penalty, if that,” Flanagan said. “It was crucial, it wasn’t a sin bin.”

Flanagan also said Ricky Leutele was tackled off the ball and the referees wrongly ruled Andrew Fifita had knocked-on when the ball seemed to roll backwards through his legs.

“Is there anyone on this planet who thinks Andrew Fifita knocked it on,” he said.

Captain Paul Gallen lost the ball after a tackle that was deemed a knock-on rather than a stripping penalty in the Sharks’ favour.

At the other end, a dubious stripping penalty was called that allowed the Cowboys to level the scores at 14-all.

Flanagan’s list of pain went on and on.