“There was about six or seven”: Flanagan blasts Grant Atkins over Vegas refereeing display

St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan has teed off on referee Grant Atkins and the officiating team after the Red V were handed a tough loss in Las Vegas against the Canterbury Bulldogs to open their season.

The Dragons ultimately lost the game by a single point in golden point after a controversial call in the final minute, with the Dragons ruled to have stripped a ball out.

Replays appeared to show a loose carry. Flanagan, speaking in his post match press conference, took aim at that decision, and a handful of others.

"It's a loose carry mate, every day of the week, without a doubt. There was that, there was a lot of others. We didn't get the rub of the green, that's for sure, but it wasn't decided in my view, the right way," Flanagan said.

"There was a couple of others that went to the bunker that were strange. We didn't get the rub of the green in any of those decisions. I'll just re-iterate, the game has been put on a real high pedestel, but tonight, it shouldn't have been decided the way it was. Good luck to the Bulldogs, they were good enough to kick the field goal, but we should have gone home one point each."

Flanagan then asked a journalist to put his name to a comment made regarding a high shot from Stephen Crichton where he was put on report, but not sin binned for making direct contact above the shoulders of Dragons' rookie winger Setu Tu.

"I don't want to keep on focusing on the negatives because it has been a great week, a great promotion, but in the first half we saw Stephen Crichton put on report for a high shot. The game earlier, there was a similar tackle and a bloke got ten minutes for that tackle. I'm just trying to work out some consistency," the journalist said.

"Mate, can you just write your words that you just said and put your name underneath it, because I am exactly the same. Like, seriously, come on. There was another one there that Setu Tu was running back, they kicked it in behind, he is running back towards the ball, Kikau pushes him in the back and they get a penalty. Like, come on," the coach replied.

"There was about six or seven of them [decision that went against us]."

Dragons captain Damien Cook admitted he hadn't watched the incidents back yet, but thought calls should have gone his side's way.

"I'm obviously going to have a biased opinion out there in the heat of battle, but you have watched it, all the fans watched it. You guys have a better opinion than me at the moment, but I'm going to say it should have gone our way," Cook said.

Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo suggested in his press conference he hadn't had a good look at the key game-changing decision in golden point, before suggesting the decision regarding Crichton not being sent to the sin bin was the correct one.

The Bulldogs now have a Round 2 bye before resuming their campaign against the Raiders, while the Dragons clash with the Storm in Round 2 at WIN Stadium.