‘We’re a new Dragons team’: Cook’s emotional declaration on fresh Red V dawn after heartbreak

An emotional Damien Cook has declared the Dragons aren’t prepared to make up the numbers this season — they are “here to win”.

Shane Flanagan’s side took the Bulldogs, a finalist from last season, to golden point in the Las Vegas season-opening games and came desperately close to securing an upset victory.

During the week, Flanagan came under fire for telling Channel 9’s Danny Weidler that “we aren’t going to win the comp this year”.

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Clearly Cook wasn’t on the same page, cutting an upset figure after his side’s loss — as he claimed there’s a new Red V on the block when asked about how close they came to a win.

“That’s one thing we can be proud of, but we didn’t come here to compete with the competition, we came here to win,” Cook said post-match.

“We’re a new Dragons team this year, and we almost came away with the perfect week… that would have been the cherry on top.

“But it wasn’t to be, so we just have to keep moving forward.”

He also paid tribute to the Bulldogs and Stephen Crichton, who kicked the matchwinning field goal to break the Dragons’ collective hearts.

“It’s hard to put into words at the moment, dying seconds for Critta (Crichton) to get the field goal,” he said.

“Good on him, good on the Bulldogs too. It has been a great week over here, we put a lot into it.

“We’ve trained really well, had a good pre-season, wanted to get the season off to a great start.

“Little bit hard looking at it now, I’m sure coach will be happy with a lot of things, there’s always things you can work on.

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“Some great signs there, but it’s just heartbreaking losing like that.”

For the Red V, both Valentine Holmes and Daniel Atkinson had attempts at a golden point field goal.

Holmes’ attempts in particular were from long range, with one effort coming from close to the halfway line.

“He’s our guy, we know that and we were probably just stretching him a little too far there,” Cook explained.

“He gave it a hell of a crack, he’s great in those big moments and he only just missed it. That’s not him at all, he just almost gave us a chance.”