- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Having been fed bagels by the North Queensland Cowboys and Brisbane Broncos in the past fortnight, the St George Illawarra Dragons will attempt to salvage something from their so-far pointless venture to Queensland on Saturday.
They face the Gold Coast Titans at Cbus Super Stadium this Saturday afternoon.
A lot has been said about the Dragons’ misfiring attack, with the 40 points (and six tries) scored to date in 2016 the fewest by any side this season.
They are also yet to score more than 16 points in a single match this season. They have been held tryless on three occasions. Apart from the recent pair of blanks they fired against the Cowboys and Broncos, the other time they failed to score a try was against Cronulla in Round 2.
This has resulted in the team copping some ridicule on social media, with some posts on Facebook and Twitter mocking the team’s current plight.
What didn’t help the Dragons’ plight against the Broncos in Brisbane was that they had only five days to prepare for that match after they had been defeated 36-0 by the Cowboys in Townsville.
Despite the best efforts of fullback Josh Dugan, the Dragons had a try denied in the first half and were eventually shut out 26-0 by the premiership favourites, but the scoreline aside, the team performance wasn’t all that bad.
It was only 14-0 with just over ten minutes to go before some ill-discipline cost them two late tries. And playing the Broncos in Brisbane is never an easy assignment; in fact, they haven’t been beaten at home since Round 26 last year.
Then there was the contractual issues involving Benji Marshall, with no other NRL club keen to gamble on him once his time at Kogarah Oval ends. He was a late withdrawal from the match against the Broncos due to a hamstring injury.
However, his return to the side this week may not be enough to spark the Dragons against the Titans, with club captain Ben Creagh not due back until Round 9 and Kurt Mann until the Anzac Day clash against the Roosters.
The Dragons will look to avoid becoming the second team in three years (and just the second in the history of Australian rugby league) to be held scoreless in three consecutive matches.
On that occasion, in 2014 the Sharks’ hat-trick of ducks came across a five-week period, with two byes in between, meaning they went through more than a month without scoring a single point.
They could face a Titans side missing Greg Bird, pending his challenge at the NRL tribunal for a careless high tackle on James Maloney for which he is disputing the grading of the charge.
If Bird is successful, then he will be free to face the Dragons, otherwise he will miss the match which looms as an equally important one for the ninth-placed Titans.
Given what has been a tough start to the season owing to their eighth-place finish last season, coach Paul McGregor has targeted that the Dragons be equal on wins and losses by the halfway point of the season.
But the trip to the Gold Coast this weekend will not be their last outside of New South Wales for the season. On the other side of their Anzac Day clash with the Roosters, they must also trek across the ditch for a clash with the Warriors.
After that, they will stay in the state for the remainder of the season, only having to make one more long road trip in Round 16 to face the Nathan Brown-coached Newcastle Knights at Hunter Stadium.
Thus, the club must target to win at least one or two of their next three matches if they are to get their season back on track, otherwise it could start slipping away sooner rather than later.
And after the representative weekend, the Dragons will never have to board a plane again for the rest of the season, and so there will be no excuses if they cannot get their season up and running again by then.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.