While they showed tremendous grit and toughness over the weekend in Las Vegas, it wasn\u2019t enough to get them over the line.<\/p>\n
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Struggling to make plays in attack, it was instead their defence that kept them competitive throughout the contest.<\/p>\n
Not one individual ran for more than 185 running metres. And they had only one line break and four support plays, compared to their opponents\u2019 seven and 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern is they\u2019re lacking X-factors. Like in the game that we just saw, who\u2019s a Stephen Crichton for them?\u201d journalist Michael Carayannis said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlanagan and Daniel Atkinson had a go and they defended really strongly, but they didn\u2019t offer much in attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braith Anasta added, \u201cWith all due respect I barely noticed them in attack at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s early so they\u2019ve got the ability to get better but if you say to me which (two halves) had more optimism about them, it\u2019s the Bulldogs,\u201d Brent Read chimed in.<\/p>\n
Lack of X-Factor exposed for Dragons | 00:56<\/p>\n
Despite going toe-to-toe with one of the premiership contenders, all four panellists believed that the Dragons are set for an early holiday come September.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll be on holidays in September Braith\u2026and nothing I saw tonight has changed my opinion,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, they didn\u2019t look like a side that would come last. If they play games like this, they will win games with their defence<\/p>\n
Carayannis continued, \u201cI don\u2019t think they can play finals at all. I think the grit was really good but they don\u2019t have a player who can turn the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the game\u2019s in the balance I can\u2019t see how they win it because they don\u2019t have any X-factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tallis slams Cowboys attack | 02:50<\/p>\n
Anasta pointed out that fullback Clint Gutherson could be that X-factor that the club was looking for, but it was quickly shut down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not fast enough, Braith,\u201d Carayannis said<\/p>\n
While the co-host stated that having that X-factor was not all about speed, he did agree that the veteran fullback is no longer at the level of other superstar players around the league.<\/p>\n
Anasta continued, \u201cHe may not be fast enough, but he comes up with special plays and even Cookie [Damien Cook] comes up with a couple.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe comes up with those plays and he\u2019s kind of their X-factor and if he\u2019s your X-factor he\u2019s the guy you rely on.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great player, but he\u2019s not at the level of a (Stephen) Crichton, Reece Walsh, the list goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Losing by one point to the Bulldogs in their opening match of the 2026 season, concerns have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-513846","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\/513846","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=513846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}