With such a dramatic trilogy of games opening Round 7, it was only inevitable that there was going to be a decrease in excitement at some point over the weekend.
Sure enough, Saturday afternoon’s clash between the Sea Eagles and the Dragons at Lottoland was a classically uneven match, with St George running Manly ragged to come away with a stunning 35-10 victory.
At this point in the season, the Red V are first in the competition for both completion rate and run metres, and they put that expertise to good use at Brookvale, putting in wave after wave of second phase play that saw the Sea Eagles struggling to find shape and structure to both their attack and defence.
That listless effort from the Manly side was all the more striking after their dominant performance against the Roosters last week, with many of their most dominant playmakers seeming to go missing over the course of the afternoon.
Whether it was the tiring effect of the temperature on the forward pack, or the dispiriting conditions under which the first Dragons try was awarded – more on that in a moment – the Sea Eagles continually fumbled passes and mistimed play, a situation that was only compounded by aborted offloads and unnecessary flick passes.
After a certain point, all the Manly near-misses became enervating, rather than exciting, making for a grinding match that was quite dull to watch despite the stellar performances from the St George side.
While Daly Cherry-Evans had some good kicks and cutout passes, he was unable to break through the line when required. Similarly, Dylan Walker was underwhelming in the wake of last week’s hat trick, opting for a series of clumsy and indecisive moves that culminated with his failure to foresee or prevent Kurt Mann’s try in the closing minutes.
The Trbojevics, too, seemed to go missing, unable to save things as they so often do. Like the Stewarts before them, they’re critical to the momentum of the Manly spirit. Without their magic touch, the Sea Eagles slumped, failing to take advantage of every opportunity that presented itself.
Before halftime, I was curious about how Trent Barrett’s address in the sheds might have looked, and even more curious in the second stanza, since it didn’t seem to have had any impact upon how the boys from Brookvale took on the Red V.
To be fair, the Sea Eagles were disadvantaged by what will surely be one of the worst calls of the season – from both referee and Bunker – in the opening minute of the game. In a play that had to be seen to be believed, Joel Thompson held DCE back from the play-the-ball, allowing Gareth Widdop to scoop up the Steeden and plant the first four-pointer of the afternoon half a metre out from the Sea Eagles line.
To call it a try was an absolute howler, and DCE showed consummate grace under pressure in handling the ref’s insistence that it was legitimate.
From then on, the tension was palpable among the Sea Eagles, with Darcy Lussick slapping Joel Thompson in the second half for a sly comment, resulting in a penalty for the Dragons. Once again, DCE came to the fore to handle the situation, maintaining his cool with considerable aplomb given that he’d been slapped in the face by David Klemmer in Round 4 with no consequences.
Still, it was a sign of desperation, as well as a bad move for Lussick during his first game of the season, and from that point on the Sea Eagles just seemed to grow more injudicious with their second phase play and final tackle options.
Yet to attribute the Dragons’ victory to that opening call would be a mistake, since the team put in one of their best performances of the season from first to last. In fact, by the end the game took on a different kind of excitement – the excitement of seeing a team prepared to give their all for a fully eighty minutes of football, rather than the excitement of watching two evenly matched teams bash it out to the death.
Sure, the Sea Eagles weren’t offering much in the way of resistance, but that just provided St George with the opportunity to show how determined they were to give their all right up until the final siren.
Nobody personified that like Gareth Widdop, who not only put in the first try of the game – however contentious – but closed out with a field goal and an additional try in the final two minutes. If the field goal was the icing on the cake, then the four-pointer was the cream on the side, as Widdop outsped Tom Turbo, grabbed him around the waist with one hand and grounded the Steeden in the in-goal area with the other.
It was a masterful piece of play and a brilliant coda to the renewed Dragons side, more like a training video or demonstration session than something occurring in the final minutes of an actual game.
If the game was a testament to Widdop’s leadership and vision, however, it was also a tribute to the speed, strength and size of the Dragons big playmakers. With Aitken bringing in two tries (assisted by Jack de Belin), and de Belin himself bringing in a third, I was reminded just how blessed St George are with dexterous big men.
Add to that Tim Lafai’s dexterity in spearheading offloads and it was a glorious afternoon for Dragons fans. The fact that Tyson Frizell was taken off in the twenty-fourth minute just made the victory all the more remarkable.
On the Manly side, the one moment of consolation came with Jorge Taufua’s try two minutes before the half time siren. At the time, it felt like it might have been a turning-point, as the burly winger tunnelled his way through the St George defence, carrying Nene McDonald and Euan Aitken over the line with him.
Above and beyond the much-needed four points, it offered the vision of grit needed to prove to Manly that they still had what it took (as well as a much-needed glimpse of a chink in Aitken’s armour).
Unfortunately, for the Brookvale faithful, it wasn’t to be, with Manly going on to play their most dismal second half of the season so far. In fact, so listless was the performance that – as the Fox commentators put it – it probably makes more sense to chalk it up to a bad day and a hot afternoon than anything else.
Yet that doesn’t mean that Manly won’t be raring for victory next weekend either, since this is a hole they need to dig themselves out of as soon as humanly possible.
Wundaluce
Roar Rookie
Really just a case of CE gamesmanship that back fired ....he clearly made the initial contact with the back of N who was heading back to his defensive position...dumb play but correct decision.
Jason Hosken
Guest
Pretty sure he grew up a Balmain fan.
Charles NSW
Guest
Nightingale was close to being the man of the match in both defense and attack. He creates plenty of space mostly out wide and is a different player to Dugan
Kenw
Guest
My Dad has often espoused a theory that Smith had money on that GF, such was the nature of his commentary that day where he was still trying to convince everyone of how lucky Saints were as they scored try after try. But he does seem to treat the Dragons differently so consistently, and he's usually a very decent commentator, so I wonder whether deep-down he's actually a Saints fan and over-compensates. Either that or it was a lot of money and he holds a grudge!
Farqueue
Guest
Warren Smith does this feigning outrage regularly. He is definitely no dragons admirer. I have read many dragons fans tell their dislike of his 2010 gf commentary. Constantly saying how lucky everything has gone their way to just scrape home 32-8. Manly had the ball ,DCE was at least 50% responsible for the tangle up. Did the author even watch the footage of the incident. Barrett saying he was dummy half...Well Trent he was 3 metres away. He's not your regular dummy half and wasn't even worried about showing intent to get there.He was ready to go back at Nightingale. Total pin head.
Kenw
Guest
McCrone had by far the best game he's played in a St George jersey. A couple of really nice touches in the Aitken tries. If he makes that his new standard (and improves his kicking game) then Hunt might be a million-dollar bench man! That said, with a few teams hunting halves, and Widdop finding form as he comes off contract (coincidence I'm sure...) he might get some big dollar offers coming in and the opportunity to pair Widdop & Hunt might disappear. I've said elsewhere I think McDonald is being blamed for Aitken's bad decisions in defence. Maybe he's no good anyway but I just don't think he's being judged on a level playing field at the moment. I'm still for Dugan at the back, he just won't touch the ball enough at centre to justify his worth, both price tag and talent. Nightingale was rock solid and had some nice touches, no surprises he's all class, but he can't create the go-forward and threat around the ruck that Dugan can.
Ian
Guest
I agree with your comment about McGregor, great player to me means they become a great coach, well except for Taylor :-). Mcinness and Vaughn great buys for the dragons, Their great form has given confidence to the rest of the Dragons.
Ian
Guest
Only a fool would right off the dragons this year.
Geo
Guest
I haven't read the article or the posts, so I apologise if this has been said. When you've been hopeless for a few years, and you're once again hopeless this year, it doesn't hurt too much. What hurts is when you're coming first in Round 6 and then, you miss the Top 8! This WILL happen to St George. It's inevitable. And it's bloody good to watch!
Mushi
Guest
I would have thought it would more be that there aren't 1000 tackles a game
Billy Stevenson
Roar Guru
True, though I thought he handled the inconsistency around slap rulings pretty well
db
Guest
Manly's effort and enthusiasm was on a par with the Roosters on Thursday night. I'm not taking anything away from either the Broncos or Dragons but the disparity in performance of some teams in the space of a week is amazing.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I'm getting disturbing visions of QEII in a Manly cheerleaders outfit...*shudder*
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ok - cheers mate. So from a purely technical point of view, the bunker made the correct decision in not including it in the review. As I've said above, I think from a football perspective it was the correct decision as well. But there's certainly a can of worms there. At what point does the bunker come in? At the moment the ball was played the DCE/Nightingale entanglement was still going on. So can he not rule on it because it started before the play the ball even though it was still happening during and after? There has to be a cut off somewhere but despite that incident starting before the play the ball it directly influenced the try scoring play so I don't see why the bunker should be restricted from ruling on it. We may have got lucky because a) the correct decision was reached (my opinion), b) it didn't directly influence the result and c) it wasn't a "big" game.
danwain
Guest
Thought so also, but I think he may have been a little sheepish knowing he wasn't so innocent which added to that
danwain
Guest
Agree it was silly to not look at the whole incident on the video, clearly highlights the inconsistency in the bunker. They do this a lot however, giving tries that need to go upstairs, or flat out denying tries that should be going upstairs. While I'm adament that it was a try, it' raises a wider issue that needs to be looked at and further illustrates where the NRL is at.
Billy Stevenson
Roar Guru
To be honest, I thought DCE was pretty level-headed each time with the ref...
Charles NSW
Guest
The Dragons win against Manly was one of the best for a long long time. They were well disciplined, hard in their defence and willing to attack from anywhere Who said that their coach McGregor cannot coach? The very arguement why I have stuck by him, knowing he needed time to improve Do not be surprised if he got coach of the year if he keeps winning like this I love the way he is improving the players such as McCrone to have self believe in themselves Nightingale has shown how good he really is, he filled the fullback role easily It shows why Dugan should be in the centres or the wing Nene McDonald has let a few tries in on his wing so Dugan may be able to fix that problem The question now is what about Ben Hunt is he worth the money against the halves we got now
danwain
Guest
Touché mate
eagleJack
Roar Guru
TB, the bunker only looked at Widdop being square at marker. And the put down. Because the incident occurred before the play the ball, the bunker are not allowed to adjudicate on it. I suspect if it happened at the tail end of a game, or was to decide a GF, that rule would be overlooked and the bunker would get involved. Predictable because the NRL is full of inconsistencies. I also imagine that if it happened in the middle of the field and Widdop had simply jumped on the ball, Manly would have got a penalty. But because they scored the refs were too scared to make a call, so went to the default setting of heading to the bunker. Probably unaware at that point, in the heat of the battle, that they couldn't look at it.