The boos were still ringing around the stadium when the questions started, but rugby league royalty has a different diagnosis for what ails the Red V, and it has nothing to do with the man in the coach's box.
Nine straight losses. A 32-0 humiliation at the hands of the Cowboys.
Fans were turning on their own team as they trudged from the field.
Shane Flanagan has since fallen on his sword with a public apology to a Dragons faithful that is rapidly running out of patience.
Andrew Johns isn't buying it. The eighth Immortal aimed at a deeper wound on Nine's Sunday Footy Show, arguing that swinging the axe on Flanagan is not the way the club should address their issues.
"Nothing is going to change (by sacking him)," Johns said.
"Unfortunately, they just don't have the players.
"There are three parts to a team: the engine room, who are the big boys who lay the foundations, the strike players out wide, and the creative players.
"They were beyond poor; their kicking game was diabolical. You've got players playing in the creative positions ... Daniel Atkinson is an outright five-eighth, not a halfback. It is too big of an ask to have him play in that position.
"Changing the coach won't do anything for me. They just need to find a genuine No.7; that is the key. Unfortunately, there is not many of them out there."
A roster built on the wrong foundations, pressure to use a young half that Flanagan won't succumb to, this is a club desperately searching for answers after five rounds into the new season.
