'It's confusing': Griffin questions lack of send-off

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin questioned whether the interpretation around send-offs has already changed after Cronulla winger Mawene Hiroti escaped with a stint in the sin bin for his high shot on Cody Ramsey.

Hiroti hit Ramsey high after he had beat four other Sharks players in a 70-metre run just before half-time and the rookie fullback was one of three St George Illawarra players to fail HIAs in the 13-12 loss.

With nine players unavailable, including four who were suspended after last Sunday's loss to Melbourne, Griffin was proud of the way the Dragons responded to the adversity before losing in extra time.

However, the coach was perplexed by the decision to allow Hiroti to return to the game after 10 minutes in the sin bin for a similar tackle to the one that saw Tyrell Fuimaono sent off last weekend.

"It's confusing," Griffin said. "The tackle on Ramsey, if that had happened in Brisbane last week then someone gets sent off.

"I said that last week, as long as they're consistent everyone will be happy. But you saw tonight there is just mass confusion as to what's 10 minutes, what's a send-off, what's a penalty? There’s a different interpretation to what there was last weekend, clearly.

"I'm not criticising. I'm just saying that if we're going to go down this path it's going to end up like that. Particularly for my bloke, the fullback, he can't protect himself when he's running with the ball like that.

"The kid had a whole body to tackle him; he could have tackled him around the legs or tackled him around the waist, so if ever they look at a deliberate high shot – and it put him out of the game – that was one of them so there."

The Dragons lost Paul Vaughan to the sin bin midway through the first half, while fellow forwards Josh Kerr and Paosa Faamausili were also placed on report for high shots.

Ramsey, winger Max Feagai, who scored two tries, and rookie prop Jaiyden Hunt all failed HIAs, leaving Griffin with just two players on the interchange after being able to call up 18th man Daniel Alvaro.

"From a club point of view the spirit they showed, the effort and the character they showed there tonight, I proud of them but the result really hurts," Griffin said.

"We had front-rowers playing in the centres at one stage there and obviously we had to shuffle our spine around to cover for Cody.

"I thought we did a really good job of that. I think we ended up with 46 per cent of possession for the night, going in with the side we did and then having to reshuffle during the game it would have been one of the best victories I have been involved with if we had got up tonight.

"They are shattered down there but as someone who is working for the club at the moment I was just really proud of them."