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Surely you’ve noticed it this week, like we girls here in our morning knitting club have. The mighty Dragons are in the grand final again! The great club side of the 11 in a row fame is once again back on the game’s biggest day!
There have been stories about how Dean Young and Brett Morris hope to emulate their famous fathers by winning a grand final for the Dragons. It would all bring a tear to your eye if wasn’t so plainly false!
The club that Steve Morris and Craig Young won premierships with is dead. It came to a close at the end of the 1998 season. I cried, looked to the heavens, protested at the time, suffered the ridicule and then reluctantly moved on.
In its place, the NRL allowed the entry of a private shelf company known as the St George Illawarra Dragons Pty Ltd. With the aid of plenty of former Illawarra players and a salary cap exemption that would have made the 2009-10 Storm team trivial by comparison, this new Dragons leach like franchise made the grand final.
Then, as now, the media and fans are in a love fest, salivating at the Dragons’ prospects of winning premiership number 16. Illawarra supporters attempted to take some comfort, but in reality there was no mention in Joint Venture of the term ‘Steelers’. Suddenly in 1999, the Joint Venture Entity reference disappeared in the lead up to this ALL SYDNEY grand final.
Recently I read on the internet from a Saints diehard that: “It will be the first premiership for St George Illawarra, on top of the 15 the St George Dragons won between 1921 and 1979.” I checked the NRL website and it stated: “Premierships: 0” (someone forget to tell the NRL marketing department though, as the “Dragons, est 1921” flags are on sale everywhere at the moment). They should read “Joint Venture Company, est 1999”.
I checked the premiership tallies for Balmain and Western Suburbs and despite the Wests Tigers winning in 2005, their tallies haven’t moved, while Wests Tigers has a tally of “Premierships: 1”. Can’t fault that.
It’s a shame, but all of this demonstrates that the fans of the old St George club still haven’t come to a final, and yes tragic, realisation. The St George RLFC club is D-E-A-D!
Before you start bashing at your keyboard in anger, ask yourself these simple questions: Are you a formal club member, with voting rights of “St George” or “St George Illawarra Pty Ltd”. Which entity actually takes the field in the NRL?
You have my sympathies.
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