Sharks get last laugh on Dragons in Shane Flanagan's Cronulla return

It certainly wouldn't have been just another victory had the Dragons closed the show after leading 10-6 at halftime, but the wheels came off in the second in trying conditions the hosts unquestionably made a better fist of en route to a 20-10 win.

Plenty of talk surrounded Flanagan's jibe about the Sharks lack of success since his 2018 departure following the Dragons Anzac Day loss to the Roosters, with reports differing as to just how pointed those remarks were intended to be.

There were suggestions it was a clever deflection in the immediate aftermath to his side conceding 60 points, while Flanagan himself said it was just banter among mates when asked on Saturday.

What the 2016 premiership-winner knew all along was that it wouldn't make a difference to what ultimately transpired on the field. On that score, his side was made to pay for a shocking second half.

Despite showing some defensive resolve just after halftime, the wheels ultimately came off as the visitors made 10 errors and missed 26 tackles to surrender their four-point halftime buffer.

"We were just awful," Flanagan bemoaned post-game.

"We never completed sets, we never got to our kick. When we did, we didn't nail them down in the corner. It was a frustrating game from our perspective because we didn't give ourselves a chance because of the errors we made.

"I thought we were in there for most of it, but some of the errors that we made with the self-inflicted penalties ... they had a period in the first half where they had too much possession on our try line.

"In the second half I think there was two nine-minute blocks where they had all the football and at one stage they had 72 per cent of possession. You can't do that against a good footy team."

The second-half fade followed a disciplined first half from both sides in conditions that, though trying, were nowhere near as horrendous as many expected just hours before kickoff.

After combining with the opposition for just seven errors in the opening half, the Dragons had doubled that tally on their own by the time the Sharks kicked eight points clear with 14 minutes left.

That, more than brittle defence, was the telling factor in a second 40 that finished two tries to zip in favour of the Sharks as the Dragons discipline with the ball deserted them.

It squandered a handy 10-6 lead on the back of a first-half double to Mikaele Ravalawa, the first laid on by a beautiful cut-out ball from Ben Hunt on a short side in the 26^th minute.

The Dragons went to the same well moments before halftime, with Tyrell Sloan releasing Ravalwa down the touch-line for the Dragons second try.

Hunt also went close to scoring himself from close range, but he and halves partner Kyle Flanagan endured a mixed evening, particularly with the boot, that left their side unable to build pressure on a wet track.

"We just didn't give ourselves a chance with errors and poor kicking from myself," Hunt said.

"We just gave them too much ball. They're coming first, you can't do that to a good side."

There were shades of the Dragons round-five loss to the Knights in similar conditions to Sunday's derby, but not in the defensive performance of Sloan.

That outing saw Flanagan shift Sloan to the wing mid-stream and suggest post-match that his No. 1 had not been willing enough to put his body on the line.

A frailty at the defensive end has long been the knock on the precociously talented Dragons fullback, but you couldn't level that charge on Sunday.

While he was simply out-weighed - and left badly stranded by his big men - when Sharks behemoth Oregon Kaufusi barged through his chest for the opening try 13 minutes in, Sloan produced a number of try-savers either side of halftime.

First he grassed runaway Sharks five-eighth Daniel Atkinson one-on-one in the 21^st minute, and then dragged down a seemingly try-bound Nicho Hynes just four minutes into the second half.

He also single-handedly grounded Siosifa Talakai metres from the try-line just minutes after the Sharks wrecking ball posted the first try of the second stanza in the 45^th minute.

Sloan also did enough to deny a flying Sione Katoa in the 64^th minute - though there was a hint of a trip in it - but it didn't stop the Sharks scoring their second try of the half through cult figure Tom Hazelton on the next play.

It was among 14 tackles made by the 21-year-old and, with the Dragons struggling to mount any sustained attack at the other end, it was perhaps the greenest shoot Flanagan could pull from his side's second loss on the bounce.

Either way, Flanagan said Sloan was one of many Dragons who made far too many tackles on the night.

"I've got a football team that can compete against the best teams in there, but we've got to give ourselves a chance," Flanagan said.

"We didn't give ourselves a chance today. We defended our try line for too long a period, and then when we got the football we were tired and flat because of all the defence we did.

"Credit to [the Sharks], they apply pressure and fatigue the opposition. That's part of the game.

"For some people it's about the tries you score, but it's actually about the processes that you go through and they made us make too many tackles.

"Then when we got the football, we were too tired to play with it. It was self-inflicted pain, most of it."