{"id":512314,"date":"2026-03-01T18:43:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512314\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T18:43:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:43:24","slug":"nrl-news-2026-johnathan-thurston-on-seven-tackle-set-shane-flanagan-press-conference-bulldogs-vs-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512314\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Johnathan Thurston on seven-tackle set; Shane Flanagan press conference; Bulldogs vs Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnathan Thurston<\/a> has fumed over the seven-tackle set rule after it proved costly for the Dragons in their loss to the Bulldogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It comes as Dragons coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> also delivered a take of disappointment from the final Las Vegas fixture, calling some decisions “strange”.<\/p>\n

The frustration for Thurston came when Daniel Atkinson attempted a field goal from halfway late in extra time which missed and was caught on the full in goal by Connor Tracey.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Knights trainer ripped as decision leads to rival try<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: World champs ‘demolished’ as NRL discards wreak havoc<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Piastri fears allayed as F1 scrambles to leave Middle East<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Johnathan Thurston on Nine’s panel.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

That gifted the Bulldogs seven tackles before they eventually ended up in attacking territory with Stephen Crichton slotting a winning field goal.<\/p>\n

Thurston believes in the context of trying to win, the rule should be changed.<\/p>\n

“The Dragons were going for the win and they’ve caught it in goal and that’s a seven-tackle set. If they’re going for the win and the game, why’s it a seven-tackle set and not a six-tackle set?,” he said on Nine’s post-match coverage.<\/p>\n

“That’s a massive disadvantage for that team. They’re going for the win. We want them to have a crack at it and they’re getting punished for it.”<\/p>\n

That winning set for the Bulldogs came off the back of a penalty against the Dragons when Ryan Couchman was ruled to have stripped the ball from Bronson Xerri.<\/p>\n

Flanagan said post-match that was a “loose carry every day of the week” after stating a draw would have been “the right decision today”.<\/p>\n

The Dragons coach was also highly complimentary of how the week ran in Las Vegas and didn’t believe it deserved to end like that. <\/p>\n

“When the game gets decided like that, it’s disappointing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Flanagan was also frustrated that Crichton managed to stay on the field after a high tackle in the 33rd minute.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Damien Cook and Shane Flanagan.\u00a0NRL<\/p>\n

In his press conference, it was put to the Dragons coach there was an element of inconsistency after Cowboys back Braidon Burns was sin-binned for a high tackle in the previous match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cowboys coach Todd Payten expressed his disappointment with the inconsistency of high tackle decisions in his match, and Flanagan seemed to agree.<\/p>\n

“Like seriously, come on. There was about six or seven of them,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnathan Thurston has fumed over the seven-tackle set rule after it proved costly for the Dragons in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-512314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}