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Opinion
A few weeks back, former Western Suburbs and St George coach, educator, author, journalist and noted polemicist, Roy Masters was interviewed by ABC Radio as part of a segment about rugby league’s greatest inter-club rivalries.
While Masters coached the Dragons in the 1980s when the club was still part of sometimes premiership defining rivalries in Sydney, his interviewers were only interested in one thing: Wests and Manly, ‘fibros’ and ‘silvertails’ and the fierce geographical and class-based polemic Masters did more than anybody to foment in the late 1970s.
When asked about the local rivalry between St George and Cronulla, there was a mere passing reference to it being ‘not the same sort of thing’ and that, at worst, a few people at St George regarded Cronulla as something of a retirement village for Dragons old boys.
It’s not much to get the protagonists’ blood flowing when crossing the Georges River, but maybe this is what it is: a gentlemanly rivalry. There isn’t anything significant in terms of culture or class, neither side has much of a chip on its shoulder and there’s thankfully nothing as juvenile as a ‘book of feuds’.
There isn’t a moment or game that lingers in the collective consciousness. The two clubs have only had one truly high-stakes encounter in over 50 years, the 1999 preliminary final which has rather faded given the drama of what happened the following weekend.
Nor have any of the players who’ve switched allegiances caused much of a stir, even though there’ve been some very good ones.
So, as we prepare for another instalment of our gentlemanly rivalry, with both clubs currently fielding alumni of their opponents and with the Dragons increasingly becoming a haven for Cronulla rejects, here’s a selection of the best who’ve represented both since 1967.
Was Dugan more trouble than he was worth? Raiders and Sharks fans would probably say yes, and with good reason given he was sacked by both clubs as part of a bizarre string of off-field incidents, often involving Blake Ferguson.
But for all that, Dugan was a quality player. He had five good seasons for the Dragons during which he played 11 Origins and 12 Tests. Whatever else happens, he’ll always have that ankle tap – the desperate lunge to bring down England’s Kallum Watkins that might’ve saved the 2017 World Cup Final for the Kangaroos.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The Engadine Dragons junior played in the early days of a golden age for wingers, with wide men increasingly dominating highlights packages and becoming key yardage players, and Best was perhaps underappreciated compared to many of his peers.
He had a very good career, though, amassing over 300 games and nearly 150 tries between the NRL and Super League, winning Dally-M winger of the year honours in 2008 with the Raiders, and representing City in 2001. He started and finished his career with the Sharks and had two good seasons with the Dragons where he scored freely playing outside Mark Gasnier in 2005 and ‘06.
Neither club saw the best of J-Moz, with his peak years and almost his entire representative career played during his time up the road at the Bulldogs.
Still, it was a bit weird seeing Morris in a Cronulla shirt, albeit briefly, given the history of his family with the Dragons. And what a rugby league family they are. Between Steve, Brett and Josh, they boast 867 top-flight games, 466 tries, 32 Origins and 25 tests. Hopefully there’s another generation to come.
Pinching powerful centre/back-rower Ken Maddison from the Dragons in 1972 was a smart bit of business by the Sharks. After debuting in 1965, Maddison played in the Dragons’ 1966 grand final victory and by the early ‘70s was poised to go to the next level.
And he duly did that at the Sharks, winning the Rothmans Medal and playing in the grand final in 1973, before starring in the Kangaroos’ Ashes victory the same year and scoring a double in the decisive third test at Warrington.
After leaving Souths for St George in 1994, Zisti had quite a purple patch. In 1996, he played a starring role in St George’s unlikely run though the 1996 finals series and scored the Dragons’ only try in their grand final defeat to Manly.
The following year he joined the start-up Hunter Mariners, scored twice in their World Club Championship Final defeat to Brisbane and set all the club’s point-scoring records, which he’ll hold forever. He then spent a season with Cronulla in 1998 and scored a try in his final NRL game against, you guessed it, St George.
But wait, there’s more. Shortly after joining Super League’s Bradford Bulls in 1999, Zisti was poached by the Italian rugby union team and unexpectedly played in the ’99 World Cup, including the unenviable task of marking a rampaging Jonah Lomu in the Azzurri’s 101-3 loss to the All Blacks. The moral of the story: if union can poach Nick Zisti, they could poach almost anybody.
The late Steve Rogers was arguably the greatest player in Cronulla’s history, first as a dashing centre in the 1970s, then as a crafty lock and playmaker in the 1980s. As the immortal Bob Fulton said, “Sludge was one of a very rare breed in the game – the player who could do everything. I rate him the most naturally gifted player I played with or against.”
Rogers had reportedly long harboured an ambition to play for the Dragons, which he did in 1983 and ’84, playing finals both years but falling short of that elusive premiership.
Rogers briefly returned to Cronulla in 1985 before a terrible broken jaw ended his career. Sludge’s son Mat told the story of that incident and his own life and career in a poignant interview with ABC Radio late last year.
The pint-sized halfback from Erina and later inventor of Oztag joined Cronulla in 1981 during a mostly lean period for the Sharks, before being tempted across the river to St George where he partnered Rogers during the Dragons’ finals run in 1984, and then guided the Dragons to the minor premiership and a grand final appearance in ’85.
Haddock later completed the triad, joining Illawarra for two seasons in the late ‘80s. Did anybody else play for all three clubs before the merger?
Porter’s a legend of both clubs. He played in six winning grand finals for the Dragons between 1958 and ’64, before becoming Cronulla’s inaugural captain in 1967.
He later became Cronulla’s club secretary, chairman of selectors and president, with the best and fairest award, a grandstand at Shark Park and the Monty Porter Memorial Cup named in his honour.
Before he was a supremely annoying pundit, Ennis was a supremely annoying player, and he ended up representing five different clubs over 14 years in the top grade. I wonder if those things are connected.
His only season with the Dragons was the great missed opportunity of 2005, but he went one better with the Sharks in 2016, with ‘the Menace’ and Jimmy Maloney the final pieces in solving Cronulla’s premiership puzzle and finally turning that damn porch light off.
The only player to win premierships with both clubs, Prior rarely got the credit he deserved, with the likes of Mick Weyman, Paul Gallen and Andrew Fifita often getting all of it. I’d have taken Prior over any of them and couldn’t have been happier for him in 2016, or when he finally got the call for Origin in 2018.
The Dragons got one back when they pinched a young Tyson Frizell from the Sharks in 2013, though Frizell was a Corrimal junior and his Welsh heritage indicates he clearly belonged at the Dragons.
Whatever, the Red V seemed to agree with Frizell, as he recorded 14 Tests for Australia and 14 Origins for NSW during his time at the Dragons.
Scott was originally signed by the Dragons out of the Macarthur region, before joining the Sharks and making his NRL debut as a centre in 2005. But he eventually saw the light and returned to the Dragons in 2007, where he switched to the back row, won a premiership, gained selection for NSW and became a much-beloved figure in Queensland. Well played, Beau.
Jeremy Smith is arguably the most influential signing in St George Illawarra’s history. Before his arrival, the Dragons had size, skill and athleticism in the forwards, but lacked the professionalism and ruthless streak of Smith that was so prominent in their 2010 grand final victory.
He was good wherever he went, including two seasons at Cronulla in 2011 and ’12, in Melbourne’s 2007 grand final team and for New Zealand with whom he won the 2008 World Cup.
Jason Stevens was a bit weird, but he deserves a jumper, as does the wonderful Lance Thompson who just edged Nathan Long for a spot on the bench. Jack Bird’s never recovered the form he showed in the premiership-winning Sharks team and has now managed to alienate pretty much everybody.
Which brings us to Jeremy Latimore, the bench prop’s bench prop and apparently the GOAT, at something. Precisely what remains unclear, but it appears to be some combination of Latimore’s self-deprecating nature and affable eccentricity, and possibly something to do with Cameron Smith. Let’s just leave it there – he’s the GOAT.
Jack Bird. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
While master coach Jack Gibson took charge of both clubs and led St George to a grand final in 1971, it has to be ‘Killer’ Kearney. As Alan Whiticker and Glen Hudson wrote, “St George turned their mastery of limited tackle football into an art form under Kearney”. The results were five premierships as a player, four of them as captain-coach, plus a sixth as coach of the Dragons.
Kearney was also captain-coach of the Kangaroos during his playing days, before stints as coach of Parramatta and Wests led him to Cronulla where he served as their inaugural coach in 1967 and continued in the role until 1969, albeit with little success at the fledgling club/retirement village. How the tables have turned.
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