Matt Cooper puts a big fend on Matt Gidley to set up Saints' only try.	Ben Creagh scores.
	Shaun Timmins
Luke Bailey	Brent Kite
Mark Riddell with Matt Cooper in the background.	Coach Nathan Brown looks back.

DISMAL DRAGONS DISGRACE KOGARAH TURF
Newcastle's crushing defeat of St.George-Illawarra represents the worst performance by a Dragons side at Kogarah in 20 years. The Kogarah faithful have not witnessed a more embarrassing performance since the Dragons were thrashed 47-12 by Easts in 1983.

Sunday's fiasco also represents the second biggest defeat of the Dragons in the history of Jubilee Oval. In 1954, Balmain recorded a comprehensive 31-5 victory against the Dragons, but this defeat has now been eclipsed by the 2003 side.

While the 1954 and 1983 sides redeemed themselves by making the finals, there is no hope for the 2003 St.George-Illawarra Dragons.

Despite their customary poor beginning to Sunday`s game, the Dragons were only trailing by 14-8 at the half-time break. Some poor defence from Timmins and a Blacklock error led to the Knights first try, but the Dragons hit back with a sensational Creagh try following a Cooper break. A ridiculous pass from Ashton Sims led to the Knights' second try, which took the score to 14-6. A Firman penalty goal on half-time brought the Dragons within 6 points and raised the hopes of the home crowd.

However, any hopes were quickly dimmed when Sims let Buderus through for the Knights' third try. The Sims mistackle opened the floodgates. Within a 15 minute period, Tahu had scored a hat trick of tries for the Knights and Creagh was made to look very ordinary in the process. The Knights scored a final try in the 78th minute to make the score a humiliating 42-8.

St.George-Illawarra have now slipped to 11th place and the 2003 side runs the risk of being regarded as one of the worst Dragons' sides since 1921. The Dragons were at their lowest ebb in seasons 1922, 1926 and 1938 when they collected the wooden spoon. However, the performance of the 2003 Dragons arguably places them in the bottom 10 teams since 1921 as their record is on a par with the teams from 1936, 1945, 1982, 1990 and 1997.

Sunday was a sorry end to a season that promised so much. The Dragons clearly need to learn the value of playing at Kogarah and the performance against the Knights was not a fair result for those who fought tooth and nail to have them returned to Jubilee in 2003.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent by R2K - www.r2k.info
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Kogarah