The Dragons’ shocking on-field performances in the past two weeks have “nothing to do” with the ongoing saga surrounding Ben Hunt, interim coach Ryan Carr said.
The Red V’s 52-16 flogging at the hands of Cronulla at Shark Park on Thursday night pushed their conceded points from the last two rounds to 100.
Despite the evidence suggesting otherwise, Carr insisted the club had “moved on” from the saga which has dominated headlines the past fortnight since the skipper requested an immediate release from the club with more than two years remaining on his contract.
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“He’s here with us, he’s part of our team, he’s going to continue to be for the rest of this year and that’s all we can focus on,” Carr said after the Sharks match.
“It’s got nothing to do with Ben and his off-field stuff, it’s got everything to do with all of us involved in the club and it’s going to take all of us to fight our way out of it.
“It’s pretty easy (to block out the noise) – we don’t even talk about it at training.
“We’ve got a group there that have got each other’s back and we’re not going to allow things like that to be excuses.
“Excuses are everywhere around you – and you can find as many as you want – but it’s up to us not to look at them, but to look in the mirror and find the answer within ourselves.”
Hunt himself had an abnormally quiet night, highlighted by a second-half failure to find touch from a penalty.
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Dragons gun Jack de Belin described his side’s performance as “embarrassing”.
“I’m bitterly disappointed, embarrassed, it’s just not good enough,” he told Danika Mason on Nine’s coverage.
“Especially after last week, we had a real point to prove, come out and do a job … we did start well but we knew if we gave them too much good ball they’ve got too much strike power in attack so that’s super embarrassing.”
The Dragons remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder, with the second-worst points differential in the competition.
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