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They got there in the end. The Roosters nicked it on Anzac Day, defeating the Dragons 27-26, but that tells just a tiny portion of the story.
In this season where every game seems to have gone to the wire, it seemed only appropriate that one of the biggest days of the year should also end in a nail-biter. Luke Keary was the difference, slotting a field goal five from time to get the points.
On so many occasions, it seemed like it was done. The Chooks raced into 20-6 lead that might well have been 26-6, but for a Bunker call that turned into a 12-point turnaround, with St George Illawarra going straight up the other end to capitalise.
Undaunted, the hosts then opened the scoring for the second half, only for a Tyrell Sloan-inspired comeback to bring the Dragons back to parity with 20 to play.
The door nearly opened for them too, with Victor Radley binned for a high shot that looked a lot like a head clash, prompting the England international to declare it a “shit decision” live on Fox League, while both Trent Robinson and James Tedesco called out referee Adam Gee for unfairly targetting their man.
“I think Victor gets treated differently because of the aggression that he plays with,” said Robinson.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s the truth. It’s my opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’s real. We might be biased.
“There’s a good chance that it is (the truth) but we feel like if it’s a 50/50 in physical contact then Rads has been on the end of it. That’s an opinion, I don’t think it’s fact.
“The angles that I just went and had a look at it over and over again, I see the head clash. I didn’t see any shoulder contact from any of the TV that I saw.
“But I know that there’s more angles. Rads was adamant that it was head-on-head. Unless they show more angles then I can only go on what I’ve seen so far.”
The fragility of the Roosters was exposed as it has been against the Sharks and Storm in recent weeks. Joseph Suaalii, in particular, will not want to see some of his defensive reads again, with the multi-million dollar rugby union recruit responsible for several Dragons tries.
There were so many storylines that it was hard to follow.
Angus Crichton made his first appearance of the year following time out with mental heath issues, Sitili Tupouniua made his return from an ACL injury suffered against the Dragons last year. Both were solid if unspectacular.
A shirtless pitch invader managed to make it 60m from behind one goal, unchallenged, to give Zac Lomax a hug. Tyrell Sloan produced the breakout NRL performance many have been expecting to see.
It was almost an afterthought that Daniel Tupou went down with a hamstring injury that might well rule him out of Origin and Tautau Moga, who scored a hat trick, left with a bad AC injury. Somewhere in there, there was a thrilling field goal finish.
The jury remains out on the halves merry-go-round that saw Sam Walker ditched, Joey Manu moved to five eighth and Keary shifted to halfback.
Robinson refused to be drawn on who will be picked for next week’s trip to Auckland, but fell short of declaring Manu a lock to continue.
“He was searching today,” he said of the reigning Golden Boot winner. “He was good at different times and really working hard to find his way into the role. That ended up in some nice footy and in some one-out play. It looks like there’s some stuff to work on there.”
Take nothing away from St George Illawarra, however, who were excellent in parts and did everything to make life uncomfortable. There are plenty of criticisms that can be thrown at Anthony Griffin’s men. Lack of heart is not one of them.
They will be annoyed to have come so far and left with so little. They actually outscored the Roosters by five tries to four, but Suaalii’s kicking, plus the Keary field goal was the difference.
“I was really proud of the performance,” said Hook. “The courage and commitment they showed, there were no losers in that department.
“It’s a cruel game at the moment for us. We’re struggling to close games out when we get into a position to and we have to stare that in the face and get better. When we do we’re going to win a lot of games.”
All eyes were on the Roosters’ new halves pairing, and it seemed like that included the Dragons. In the first half, the Red V allowed two tries right down the middle.
The Dragons were defending in blocks: their A, B and C defenders were attempting to make big contact on Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Lindsay Collins, but that was easily negated by long passing from Brandon Smith from dummy half.
The Cheese sent Egan Butcher galloping through the middle with an excellent pass that shifted the point of attack side of three onrushing forwards, while JWH pass to Victor Radley close to the line confounded them all over again.
It must have been something spotted in video by the Roosters’ backroom staff, because Smith is not known as a long, distributive passer but was throwing them wide all day.
At times, it was as if the Dragons were fighting with their intentions. They are big on effort and low on invention at times, but every time the game looked like it would get away from them, they put some air under the footy and came up with points. Then they’d go back into their shell and be rubbish again.
The Roosters are absolutely there to be taken at times and have been for 18 months now. Their defence is not what it used to be.
Joseph Suaalii has lots of good traits – you can add goalkicking to that as of today – but reading rugby league games is not one of them, as Tyrell Sloan found out on several occasions. The fullback was exceptional in attack, making it all the more baffling that he isn’t given more licence to play.
The coach said the biggest difference between this year and last for his fullback was time.
“He’s a bit older and once they get a bit of confidence and believe that they belong at that level, the natural talent comes out more and more,” said Hook.
“The biggest thing is that he saves us a lot of times with his scramble. He’s learned to be a pretty good defensive fullback already. There’s still a long way to go in development and knowledge.”
As soon as the Dragons levelled the scores, the ball was put away again. From the 61st minute to the end, St George Illawarra returned to their worst habits and began dropping the footy, kicking badly and failing to challenge the Chooks.
Having showed so much ticker to get back into the game – had it gone to 26-6 it might well have ended north of 50 – they bottled the ending. They had the perfect moment with Radley in the bin, but produced next to nothing.
“We came back, we had the game by the scruff of the neck but we didn’t earn the right to have any field position in that last 15 minutes,” said Griffin. “That period when they had 12 men, we had one good ball set and then we spent the rest of the game down our end of the field.”
Keary slotted straight back into directing traffic from halfback – no surprises there – and Manu certainly did get his hands on the ball more.
It’s hard to say if he did a better or worse job than Walker might have done, given how differently they go about the job, but Manu was influential in his own way.
Several times he took the ball to the line and went sideways, using his tackle breaking potential to crab across the field in search of a straight runner. That one tended not to arrive could be put down to lack of cohesion, because it was certainly on plenty of the time.
Robinson spoke in the week about Manu’s ability to roam the field to find his place, and he did that early in the second half for a smart score.
It was the sort of try that one could imagine Jack Wighton or Matt Burton scoring, which is about as big a compliment as it gets for a big-bodied running half. In that sense, it was mission accomplished.
The real obstacle for Walker returning might be Keary. He was named man of the match, owned the big moment and looked more comfortable in the 7 jersey.
They’ve already tried the pair the other way around, for the first half of last year, and it didn’t work. Walker might find that he plays 7 or not at all, and if Keary turns out like this, he’s going nowhere.
With Tupou now injured, the light might fall on Suaalii for his defensive lapses. The wonderkid is one of the best around in attack, but Robinson singled him out for failings on several Dragons scores.
“For the first one, he’s up ahead of the line,” said Robbo. “He should have been back a metre and he would have had better sight on the last play. But the last couple were just tackles and they’re going to happen in any position.
“He was in the right position, he just needed to nail those tackles along with Kez (Keary). It’s come up a couple of times and he needs to improve on it.”
It might be that the halves story and left edge defensive woes have the same solution: Manu back to centre, Suaalii back to the wing, Walker back to the halves. It was that combination that delivered their best footy of 2022.
The hookers told their own story. For 40 minutes, Brandon Smith was exceptional, running close to man of the match along with James Tedesco.
He fed his forwards well, worked the markers around and offered a kicking threat from dummy half. One try was all his work and a second was largely down to the Cheese, who scrambled the defensive line and created the break on the next play.
Smith, however, copped a knock on the wrist and departed the game in the 56th minute, midway through the collapse. He returned later on, back to his usual ball-of-energy stuff.
“That first try, that was really nice service,” said Robinson. “It’s not as much a plan, but when we’re moving together he has those options. When our forwards are connected and moving we can move it around between tight to the ruck and a bit wider.”
Moses Mbye, who started in the 9 for the Dragons, looked every inch someone playing out of position. There was no craft, no manipulation.
That’s not a knock on Mbye, who is a superb utility player and showed it later in the piece by playing on the wing when Tautau Moga went off. But he’s not a specialist in one of the most specialised roles on the field.
It was no surprise that the Dragons revival began almost instantly when Jacob Liddle came on. Pretty much anyone can pass from dummy half, but there’s a touch more to the hooking role than that. Immediately, Liddle threatened behind the ruck, pinned the markers and allowed the space that Sloan was able to exploit.