With Jamie Soward a late withdrawal, Nathan Fien moved into the play making role, Mitch Rein slotting in at hooker whilst Cameron King made his way onto the bench. Backed by a strong wind, St George found easy metres early on, Dan Hunt and Trent Merrin leading the way with early surges into the Melbourne half. The Storm welcomed back Billy Slater who posed an immediate threat, targeting the Dragons make shift left side defence, Beau Scott filling in for the injured Matt Cooper.

Within 10 minutes, Billy Slater managed to set up the first try of the night. 20m out, a typical overlapping run saw Slater dash across the right side of the pitch before throwing a cut out ball. Unfortunately for Billy, it was Brett Morris who pounced, intercepting before racing 90m up field to open the scoring, Chase Stanley slotting the extras, 6-0.

Melbourne continued to persist down the Dragons left edge whilst St George Illawarra’s mobile forwards laid the platform, finding metres to please through the Storm’s middle. The Dragons pressed on, with their season on the line and once again Brett Morris managed to trouble the Storm. With space down the left flank, Morris scooted away before an inch perfect kick saw Beau Scott reach out and score, Stanley again converting. 12-0. For his troubles though, Beau Scott picked up a groin injury, forced off the field with Matt Prior filling in at left centre.

Minutes later, St George extended their lead. Persistent pressure through the middle finally paid as Trent Merrin surged from 10 metres out, stretching out from distance to plant it underneath the cross bar. 18-0.

Melbourne looked shell shocked, but you can never rule the Storm out. They threatened through the middle, with a desperate lunge by Matt Prior only delaying the inevitable as Billy Slater took control, decoy runners leaving gaps for Kevin Proctor and Will Chambers to score out wide, narrowing the deficit to 18-12 at the break.

The Storm, facing 5 straight defeats for the first time in Craig Bellamy’s tenure, needed the perfect start to the second half, and almost had it. An error off the restart by Jack De Belin gave Melbourne the opportunity and after a repeat set of 6, they walked away empty. On their next trip to the Dragons goal-line, points were scored, yet it was the Dragons who troubled the scorer as Brett Morris scooped up a loose ball and raced 90m up field yet again, Stanley sending the conversion wide. 22-12.

Only minutes later, Brett Morris claimed his third of the night, a floating cut-out ball saw Morris receive 20m out, cutting back inside before skipping past 3 men to further extend the lead. 26-12.
Whilst Brett Morris was troubling the scorer’s, Nathan Fien managed to perfect every 5th tackle option, burying each and every kick deep in the Storm half, finding touch as required and minimizing any broken play opportunities for Billy Slater. Dan Hunt led the way in the engine room, with Trent Merrin and Will Matthews making several inroads. Daniel Vidot ran like a beast whilst Jason Nightingale was safe as always.

Melbourne Storm’s wide running play which troubled St George late in the second half was brilliantly nullified by a tactical switch from coach Steve Price. With Prior found out in his covering role, Price switched Hornby with Prior in defence, allowing Hornby to make the decisions in defence, rather than leaving the second-rower stranded.

With time ticking, the Storm managed to pull one back, a cross-field kick finding its way to Ryan Hinchcliffe, Cameron Smith converting, 28-16. Nerves kicked in for the 11500 home supporters as the Storm threatened to take it to the final whistle, a break down the left flank eventually came to an end as Daniel Vidot sent his opposing man into touch.

The victory keeps St George within touching distance of the 8, with several other teams vying for the final spots. 5 losses on the trot for Melbourne has seen them relinquish top spot, and leave many wondering if they are indeed the real deal.

@Sasman1987

The Sporting Roast

We need to be in full colour and voice. We are the 14^th man. We are the voice that will push the boys over the line.

Let’s get out there in numbers and make sure we create an atmosphere to remember.

It’s time to STAND TALL, it’s time to SING LOUD and it’s time to FIRE UP.

The Dragon Army will be located in the Dragons Supporter area on Saturday night Vs Souths at ANZ stadium. We will be in Bays 146, 101 and 102 as indicated on the map below.

Banners need to me registered for ANZ, if you have a new banner that has never been registered before please email info@stgidsa.org with your Name, Address, Mobile Number and the Banner details I.E Text, size and types of poles. This needs to sent in no later than Thursday night to ensure the registration list is sent to ANZ stadium in Friday.

Whilst for the traveling faithful the result was not the wanted outcome, it highlighted what was an eventful afternoon for the STGIDSA who had arranged our first road trip since becoming an official organisation.

At first glance, it looked like the stars had aligned. 56 passionate St George supporters met up at St George Leagues Club, the bus departed on time and names were finally put to faces after weeks of online communication. A glowing atmosphere was highlighted by several individuals sharing stories, jokes and food as we rolled down the highway towards Canberra.

Two hours into the bus trip and the traditional pit stop at the Big Merino in Goulburn was the start of what became a horror run of luck for the passionate group. After trying to fire the brand new Iveco bus back up, our driver shook his head and we knew it didn’t look good. A quick phone call back to head office saw a second bus depart from Narellan, meaning if a minor miracle didn’t happen, the Dragons fans would remain congregated at McDonalds. A local mechanic made his way, but to further rub salt into the wounds, despite several false starts, the bus just never got going.

7pm had come and gone and news filtered in that Canberra had opened the scoring. It just was not going to be our night. Then finally, the second bus emerged with all 56 supporters dashing on board, making a swift transition for the final dash to Canberra. 15 minutes in, the phone calls came through, social media went into frenzy and the Triple M commentators let us all know why. We were the talk of the town. Fox Sports, 2UE, Triple M, @NRL_Dragons were all talking about that broken down bus in Goulburn carrying a busload of St George supporters. Would the Army make it to Canberra?

Nothing was going to stop us until we had arrived at our destination. We were informed that the gates might just be closed. The second half was well under way and normal protocol ensured nobody entered after that whistle blew. Fortunately, Chairperson Peter Trad took the initiative, making that phone call which ensured the gates would remain open for us to scramble in, and scramble in we did, darting up the stairs before finding ourselves in the private boxes of Canberra Stadium. Back down the stairs we dashed around the ground and finally joined our fellow brothers and sisters, with ironic cheers awaiting us.

As one we fired up, Social media again acknowledging that the Army had indeed arrived, our voices steering our boys on to take the lead with 10 minutes left on the clock. Was it to be? The end of 12 years of pain at Canberra was about to be squashed.

You know how the story finished. Canberra turned it on and streaked down field, not even a referral upstairs could provide us the opportunity to leave with 2 points.

It just wasn’t to be, but it will be a story to tell in years to come.

Tony Sassine

The Dragons looked flat from the get go, setting the trend after early penalties for not playing the ball correctly and knock ons. Canterbury were swift to make St George pay with Josh Morris scoring the first of his hat-trick.

The tide rolled on when after another infringement for not playing the ball correctly, Josh Morris dummied and strolled over for his second, the Bulldogs fan delirious with glee while Dragons fans sunk lower in their seats.

After 28 minutes though, there was something to get the Dragon Army in full voice again, Brett Morris and Kyle Stanley combined for the latter to cross for what would turn out be the Dragons only points of the evening, thanks to Soward’s missed conversion.

Once the status quo had resumed, the Dragons knocked on once again to give Josh Morris his hat-trick before halftime and crush the spirits of Dragons fans in the stands with the scoreboard reading 18-4 to the home team.

St George came out of halftime with some venom, looking like they could claw back the deficit but the resistance lasted ten minutes with the story repeating; a silly penalty allowed Canterbury into attacking position and they capitalised, Bryson Goodwin getting his name on the score sheet.

The Dragons resistance quelled, Canterbury looked to put an exclamation mark on their victory which they last tasted in 2008 and it came in the 74th minute when Greg Eastwood crashed through to put the cherry on top, 30 points to 4.

Hopefully the Dragons can put this shambolic performance behind them when they head back to their spiritual home Kogarah Jubilee to face the West Tigers and maybe more importantly turncoat Tim Moltzen.

A muggy afternoon cooled down slightly when the rain started tumbling but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the Dragon Army who assembled in the South Eastern corner of Hunter Stadium, bristling with excitement of another season.

The confidence of the Bennett era rolled on into the Steve Price era when after an early penalty goal by Newcastle, continuing the trend of Bennett teams taking the two points when offered, Brett Morris twisted and turned into a try scorer, getting the first try of the 2012 season in the 11th minute.

Jamie Soward was on song with his kicking game early on, sending the conversion over the black dot then 18 minutes later with a penalty goal to extend the Dragons lead to six which was shortened to two when Jarrod Mullen sliced through the Dragons defence, ending the half on a knife edge at 8 points to 6.

Vocal cords moistened and food digested, St George almost had the perfect start when Nathan Fien pounced on a loose pass but he bounced it at the crucial moment. Matt Cooper wouldn’t be denied, the new father struggling but the video referee saw the ball hit the turf and it was green lighted.

The eight point lead seemed to spur on the Knights, with a flash point being Timana Tahu, taking a cheap shot at Matt Prior when he was on the ground, leading to Tahu becoming the recipient of many army chants and howls of boos when he was eventually put on report.

With almost 30,000 Novacastrians cheering, the Knights scored again when Tahu laid on a try for James McManus, followed by a Gidley penalty goal to level scores and raise tensions tenfold.

Both teams tried to break the tie with a late field goal but all attempts went wide, taking years off everyone in the stadium and a sense of deja vu for Dragons fans with Price’s first competition game in charge, going to golden point much like Bennett.

Unlike Bennett though, Price got off to a winning start when an error by the Knights in their own half, let St George roll forward until fourth tackle then Jamie Soward calmly slotted the winner then leaped high into the arms of his team mates.

On the hill, it was bedlam in the army with everyone jumping around, hugging and celebrating the first golden point victory ever for St George Illawarra and it showed in the relief and ecstasy in everyone’s faces but damn it’s great to have football back.

If you liked this article and would like to read more, my twitter name is @DragonPunk12 and I blog at therandwickpress.wordpress.com