Saints v Melb Rnd 18 (2000)

Round 18
Sunday
4th June
2.30pm
Saints v
Melbourne
Venue: WIN
Saints on TV 2000

Match Preview
& Team

Match
Report & Results

TV / Video Capture

This Weeks

Sound File

Scrapbook

Referee Rating

PREVIEW: Strewth! What a bloody month this has been! Even my old man can't remember a year like this. Surely, this only happens to other clubs. This is round 18 and we take on a confident Melbourne.
Incredibly, Melb have a 6½ start on the footy tab. Perhaps the bookies know something I don't. More likely, they are unaware of players who see it fit to resign mid season or get suspended whilst being backed by a bunch of players who can't tackle ! Then there is the in fighting and let's not even talk about the injuries to key players.
To cap it off, The Dragons have lost confidence in their coach, David Waite who will not be with the team in 2001.
But back to Sunday's match; Take a look at the team and our backline looks vulnerable. Good news is that Matt Cooper returns and Craig Smith is back in the pack ! Only a nut would tip Saints and I'm that nutter.
Saints by 9.
-Cal
Melbourne are without Kimmorley, Hill and Howe. The Dragons will do more than just stick their chin out, they'll be running onto the ball like never before. - Saints by 16
-Willow (sorry about the 2¢ worth)

FOOTY TAB:
Melbourne Storm : 6.5 start

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS TEAMS MELBOURNE
STORM

Amos Roberts Lee Murphy Lee Hookey Jason Hooper Nathan Blacklock Trent Barrett Luke Branighan Luke Bailey* Nathan Brown(c) Craig Smith Darren Treacy* Andrew Hart Wayne Bartrim Res:

Chris Leikvoll Terry Lamey Jamie Fitzgerald Matt Cooper

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Res: 14 15 16 17

Matt Geyer Brad Watts Aaron Moule Tony Martin Marcus Bai Tasesa Lavea Kevin Carmichael Matt Rua Russell Bawden Paul Marquet Ben Roarty Richard Swain (c) Brett O'Farrell Res: D. Williams P. Robinson W. Fenton G. Turner

Teams subject to late changes *Late withdrawals: Treacy out, Luke Bailey out.
IN: Colin Ward, Wes Patten.

FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 50 - Melb 4
Match Conditions: Fine, cool. Light breeze favours Saints 1st half.
Attendance: 10, 141
MATCH SUMMARY:

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DRAGONS CRUISE TO 50 - 4 VICTORY !!! The Mighty Dragons were in fine form today with a massive win over a pathetic Melbourne outfit who thought all they had to do was show up & do a few laps of the pitch.
Saints ran in 10 tries to 1 and were entertaining all afternoon. The score would have been much greater if not for Trent Barrett having to leave the field in the second half after scoring 2 back to back tries.
Barrett was magnificent and laid down the terms and conditions of game play in the first 10 minutes...after that Melbourne had no say in what was to follow.
Also outstanding were Nathan Blacklock (2 tries, 2 goals), Amos Roberts, Jason Hooper, Wayne Bartrim and Craig Smith.
Saints had 62% of the ball thanks to great chasing, solid defence and backing up all day...something the Dragons have to do every week from here on in. FULL MATCH REPORT: This week, I'm going to let the pictures and the captions do the talking. All the tries were great and all came as a result of razzle dazzle in the backline with plenty of team mates backing up. Saints were tremendous in the centres! None of this would have been possible without a consistent straight line in defence which drove the opposition back to Wodonga.
Some news reports are going on about Melb being without key players...that's a load of garbage. Saints came into this match with a recent history you wouldn't wish upon your worse enemy and a team that looks nothing like the team of round 5.
Mark Coyne's article below is stirring stuff and well worth the read.
Here is the scoring according to the clock. The main commentary is in the pictures.
9 min: Jason Hooper try. Score Saints 4 - 0
17 min: Terry Lamey try. Score Saints 8 - 0
25 min: Nathan Blacklock try, Wayne Bartrim conversion. Score Saints 14 - 0
30 min: Blacklock try, Bartrim conversion. Score Saints 20 - 0
35 min: Lee Murphy try. Score Saints 24 - 0
38 min: Hookey try. Score Saints 28 - 0
46 min: Tony Martin try. Score Saints 28 - 4
53 min: Trent Barrett try, Bartrim conversion. Score Saints 34 - 4
56 min: Barrett try. Score Saints 38 - 4
(Barrett leaves field)
71 min: Hookey try, Blacklock conversion. Score Saints 44 - 4
79 min: Amos Roberts (runaway) try, Blacklock conversion. Score Saints 50 - 4 FULL TIME SCORE:
SAINTS 50 - MELBOURNE 4

MELBOURNE'S BIGGEST LOSS TO DATE

It was great to see Saints going into a huddle after the match, I haven't seen this since 1999. These players want to win. Afterall, they are a team of professionals who have copped more than their fair share of distractions in 2000. We know how good they are. We know how good they can be. Most of all, we know the strength of the Dragon Spirit.

Saints Best
3- Barrett , 2- Blacklock, 1- Hooper

Stats:
Saints 50
(Blacklock 2, Hookey 2, Barrett 2, Roberts, Murphy, Hooper, Lamey tries. Bartrim 3 / 7, Blacklock 2 / 2, Roberts 0 / 1 goals)
Melb 4
(Martin try, Geyer 0 / 1 goals)

Possession: Saints 62% - Melb 38%
Completions: Saints 79% - Melb 61%
Errors: Saints 6 - Melb 12
Missed tackles: Saints 18 - Melb 30
Line breaks: Saints 13 - Melb 6
Offloads: Saints 24 - Melb 25
MAN OF THE MATCH

Trent Barrett, a cert for the World Cup Squad, makes a break in the opening minutes, sending a pass to Blacklock.

Seconds later, Hooper scores and its 4 - nil.

Roberts makes a half break and flicks a beaut pass to Hooper who makes good ground

Moments later Lamey scores out wide.

This is a good try which starts with a break down the right flank. Hookey puts in a mid-field kick.

Tingha regathers the ball at pace and scores under the posts.

Barrett on the last tackle does a trade mark bust.
From near half way - he sees the gap and runs through it, setting up his outside men.

Blacklock scores his 2nd try.

That's Craig Smith getting a belting on the ground as Roarty slips a few in

Wes Patten lends a hand

Saints get the penalty and everyone expects a 2 pointer...Wes takes a quick tap...

...and finds Lee Murphy who scores out wide. Melb are still arguing with the ref.

Wes gets all the credit.

Barto in his 200th career game lines up again.

Lee Hookey scores just before the break.

Ball and all tackle from Roberts. Saints do some actual tackling.

Branighan from the scrum base and 10m out fires a pass to Barrett...


	Trent Barrett scores an easy try

Hookey and Barrett combine in a simple run around move for Barrett to score his 2nd

Branighan sets it up and kicks into the in-goal. Hookey scores his 2nd, giving the world the finger.

A PRIESTLY LOOKING JOHN RIBOT SEEMS TO BE HOLDING HIS COMPOSURE WELL ENOUGH
BUT THEN HE SLOWLY STARTS TO GO DOWN, GRIMACING IN PAIN.
PERHAPS IT WAS SOMETHING CHRIS JOHNS SAID AS SAINTS
GO FURTHER AHEAD ON THE SCOREBOARD...AND WHO SAID THAT FOOTY WASN'T FUN?

8 minutes to go and Saints still put on an excellent chase. 2 minutes to go and Terry Lamey still tackling like a man possessed.

In the final minute, Melb knock on and Amos Roberts picks up the loose ball. He just pulls away in 2nd gear.
A great way to finish the match and it brings up the half century.

The Huddle

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Amos Roberts scoring the final try

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SCRAP BOOK
From the Gold Coast Bulletin. Monday, June 5:

It was a great win

DON'T let anyone tell you St George Illawarra's triumph over Melbourne yesterday was the result of the Storm being seriously weakened because of State of Origin commitments.
St George Illawarra took the field without key players as well including forwards Darren Treacy and Luke Bailey.
If you add to that Anthony Mundine, Lance Thompson and mark Gasnier the Dragons were well down.
And, for good measure, Trent Barrett played with a troublesome knee ligament strain and was restricted in his mobility.
But what he lacked in personal body movement he made up for with brain power, directing traffic in great style.
Barrett was taken from the battle front with the game in the bag at 38-4.
The Dragons' mid-week coaching drama, where co-coach Andrew Farrar was announced as sole coach next year ahead of David Waite, was in no way a catalyst for the turn around from the team's 70-10 defeat earlier in the year.

The young guys stood up and were counted, particularly centres Jason Hooper & Lee Hookey and fullback Amos Roberts.
It did my heart good to see St George Illawarra in full flight and made me proud.
It seemed to me the uncertainty about the coaching for next year had plenty to do with the result.
The young kids showed me what a great future the club has as they went at the Storm from the start and played two passages of perfect football in possession.
In the 20 minutes leading up to half time and the 20 minutes after St George Illawarra completed every set.
I'M glad the coaching situation for next year is resolved and I feel sorry for David Waite, who has been in the job for 5 years.

But it was always going to be difficult with the merged club situation - Waite from St George and Andrew Farrar from Illawarra.
Waite was not replaced for next year because of his coaching ability.
His record has been quite remarkable.
The only reason I can see is that the board members apparently think he's been in the job for too long.
Some people have been saying that Waite should go now, but that's not what the co-captains Craig Smith and Nathan Brown wanted and when they put it to the players it was unanimous he stay for the rest of the year.

Mark Coyne's Column appears every Monday in the Gold Coast Bulletin. (- with Errol Harris)

REFEREE & TOUCH JUDGES & VID REF

REFEREE: Paul Simpkins

Total Referee or Touch Judge errors = 3
Errors in favour of Saints = 2
Errors in favour of Melb = 1
Penalty Count: Saints 5 - Melb 4
21 min: Melb player, Rua offside and impedes Blacklock behind tryline. Ref orders line drop out. Error favours Melb.
49 min: Saints players in offside position as Hooper retrieves bouncing ball which came off Blacklock after Melb bomb. Hooper was in front of Blacklock. Error favours Saints.
53 min: Ref rules that Bartrim is held up over Melb tryline and orders 10m scrum. We had a long hard look at this and can't work out how the ref could possibly have ruled this. It looked like Barto was trying to 'double movement' his way into a held up position and a penalty to Melb was possibly warranted. Even so, he was still short of the tryline and the correct ruling should have been for the ref to order a play the ball. Saints get ball back from scrum and score a try that had been coming for some time. Error favours Saints.
Comments: Paul Simpkins had a lot of trouble keeping the 10 metres. He also allowed players to hold down in the play the ball area.
In general though, he had little to do. The task he had to perform most often was bringing Melbourne back to the centre for the kick off. All in all, he had an easy day's work and his blatant error count was the lowest I've seen for some time.
Overall rating: 6 / 10

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