 In the preliminary final, Cronulla were defeated by Melbourne 22-6.On 19 December 2018, Flanagan was de-registered as a coach indefinitely for failing to adhere to the conditions of his suspension in 2014.The NRL integrity unit had found that Flanagan had sent more than fifty emails exchanged between Flanagan, club management and the football department which was strictly against the conditions of his suspension which included that Flanagan was to have no contact or involvement with the club during his ban.