St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown took aim at his halves following an 18-16 golden point loss to Cronulla at ANZ Stadium, saying their poor decisions and inability to listen to instructions cost them the game.

The Dragons were cruelly denied victory after Sharks winger Bryson Goodwin scored a miracle try two minutes from fulltime to level the scores and then former co-captain Jason Ryles gave away a penalty 41m out directly in front just two minutes into extra time.

But Brown didn't blame Ryles for the loss, instead he claimed a poor defensive effort allowed the Sharks within scoring range and the misguided kicking game of his halves failed to ice the victory when they led 16-12.

The outgoing Dragons coach said he continually told Jamie Soward and Rangi Chase to kick to the corners, but the young duo never listened.

"If we kicked the ball better we would have won the game," said Brown.

"I thought (Cronulla halfback) Brett Kimmorley had a limited impact on the game but he was kicking the ball in the corner when our younger halves were putting up bombs on the halfway so Cronulla were starting on their 40m line and our forwards kept running back to the tryline.

"That's basically where the game was won and lost for mine.

"Whilst our halves improved a lot on last week and started to get a bit of structure and ball movement for us which was really good, we needed to get a good kick in there.

"We must have sent 100 messages out, kick the ball to the corner. That's all Noddy (Kimmorley) did, he just kept kicking the ball to the corner.

"It puts (the opposition) under pressure and that is what we needed to do.

"It definitely could have made the result be much different."

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