St George Illawarra coach Shane Flanagan is hinting he may be forced to make changes after his side were hammered by North Queensland.
The Red V went ahead 18-4 at Kogarah Oval on Saturday, only to crumble to a 46-24 defeat against the Cowboys, who are enjoying their best start to a season in 17 years.
The Dragons’ lack of composure and discipline proved costly and came the week after a 38-0 drubbing at the hands of the Dolphins.
Flanagan, whose side host Manly next week, said he may be forced to shake things up after failing to build on their dominant round-one win over the Gold Coast.
“That’s something I’ve got to look at,” Flanagan said after Saturday’s defeat.
“I gave an opportunity (for the players) to have a right of reply. Did we reply? For 40 minutes I’d say we did.
“The second 40 minutes we didn’t.
"It’s something we’ve got to look at as a club, but I’ve also got to trust this group to improve.
“That’s where I’ve got to do my job. We’ll keep chipping away, working hard in the week because there’s a football side there.”
Flanagan bemoaned his side’s lack of leg speed in the middle of the park, where the Cowboys dominated in terms of yardage and pace of the ruck.
The Dragons coach is hopeful he will be at full strength heading into the game with Manly at Wollongong, with hooker Jacob Liddle and a number of powerful forwards set to be at his disposal.
“Jacob will be back, he had an HIA (head injury assessment) with the 11-day stand-down," Flanagan said.
“Francis Molo will be back after his week’s suspension, and Hame Sele, we’d like to think he’ll be right.
“(Sele) hasn’t played for us yet and he’ll give us some experience and leg speed in the middle.
“Jaydn Su’A should be right and that gives us four good forwards to come back.
"But that isn’t going to solve the problem, we need to solve it as a group.”
