Saints v Melb: Round 5 (2000)

Round 5
Friday 3 March
Saints v Melbourne
Venue: M.C.G.
Saints on TV 2000

Attendance: 23,239

Match Report

TV / Video Capture

Scrapbook

Referee Rating

SAINTS TEAM (ROUND 5) v MELBOURNE STORM

Out: Ainscough (injured), Langi
In: Timmins, Thompson (back from injury)

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FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 10 - Melbourne 70
Match Conditions: Night match
19 degrees C, Raining, Moderate Breeze South
MATCH SUMMARY:
SAINTS CAPITULATE
This is a black day for all St George Illawarra and their supporters. Saints played like a train wreck; they were hopelessly without direction and had no idea what was happening. Melb took full advantage of the woeful depths to which the Dragons have sunk. Melb supporters laughed, and at best felt pity for the team that was once known as The Mighty Dragons. Saints supporters just looked away with disgust.
We watched the match from the comfort of our lounge room with plenty of beer to drown our sorrows and this helped us through this 'Grand Final Replay'. I felt sorry for the Saints' supporters who travelled all the way to Melb just to sit in the rain and see our 'team' succumb so easily.

From the outset, Melb played like a team that wanted victory. They thoroughly deserved their win but were helped along by 2nd rate opposition
Saints made thousands of unforgivable errors. Cardinal sins include:
Kicking out on the full from the kick-off - TWICE!
Turning their backs on the attacking team.
Sliding and opening huge gaps in defensive line
Refusing to take the ball up.
Refusing to mark up.
Playing out of position.
Waiting for someone else to do the tackling.
Passing the ball forward from a tap re-start.
Tripping, stumbling and generally looking stupid.
Not taking enough pride in their jersey.
Have I forgotten anything?
There is a rumour going around that David Waite may be leaving at the end of this year. I wouldn't blame him for leaving this weekend. How do you coach a team that allows a record score to be racked up against them?
Sometimes, we did see a player or two who wanted to have a go. But I'm not prepared to dig deep to find anything good to say about this game.
There were so many bad players on the field tonight that I really had trouble giving points. Willow says I have to give a 3-2-1 score to 'Saints Best 3' - but because they were so bad I decided that none of them deserve any points at all.
Perhaps next week...

-Cal

Minutes Report:	Its a little difficult to give a full minutes report this week. Melb scored 12 tries to 2 & had more than a lion's share of the ball. We have no interest in re-living the whole match. After all, this is not a Melb RL website. You'll probably get a more detailed report at one of the Melb supporters sites if that's what you want. Below is an abridged version of this match....
14th minute	Possession: Saints 27% - Melb 73% Score: Saints 0 - Melb 18
22nd minute	Saints finally get some ball and for the first time get inside Melb's 20 metre area. Nathan Brown kicks to Hookey's wing who flies up to score wide out. Kick from Bartrim misses. Score: Saints 4 - Melb 24
27th minute	Missed tackles: Saints 14 - Melb 2 Score: Saints 4 - Melb 30
30th minute	Tackles: Saints 94 - Melb 68 Score: Saints 4 - Melb 36
34th minute	Possession: Saints 37% - Melb 63% Times tackled in opposition's 20: Saints 2 - Melb 15 Score: Saints 4 - Melb 38
HALF TIME	Possession: Saints 37% - Melb 63% Completions: Saints 8/13 - Melb 19/22 Line breaks: Saints 1 - Melb 7 Tackles: Saints 117 - Melb 81 Missed tackles: Saints 23 - Melb 2 Handling Errors: Saints 4 - Melb 2 Score: Saints 4 - Melb 42
58th minute	Possession: Saints 37% - Melb 63% Penalties: Saints 3 - Melb 5 Completions: Saints 11/20 - Melb 27/34 Score: Saints 4 - Melb 54
73rd minute	Corey Pearson from the half way grubbers ahead and Trent Barrett charges through putting it onto the boot. The ball goes up and it now looks like a bomb. The bounce favours the persistent Barrett, he regathers and scores under the posts. Stand in kicker, Lance Thompson puts it over. Score: Saints 10 - Melb 64
77th minute	Melb score and convert. They are only the 4th team in history to score 70 or more in an Australian comp. Full Time Score: Saints 10 - Melb 70

Stats:

Coach Killer Stats:
Missed tackles: Saints 41 - Melb 7
Completion Rates: Saints 57% - Melb 76%
Line Breaks: Saints 2 - Melb 16

The M.C.G.

Matt Cooper

Lee Hookey Scores

Coming back out for the 2nd half

Half time stats tell a sad tale

Lance Thompson

Barrett kicks for himself

Trent Barrett finds rare space

Nathan Blacklock

Matt Cooper on the right flank

Cooper making a good break

Trent Barrett gets a try

Nathan Brown sums it up
Nathan Brown talks

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The Sunday Mail (Qld), March 5, 2000

Mundine
told to
shut up
From ADAM HAWSE in Sydney

ST GEORGE Illawarra yesterday banned the "Man with the Mouth", Anthony Mundine, from talking to the media for a fortnight as legendary Dragons fullback, Graeme Langlands led a barrage of public criticism of the five-eighth after Friday night's thumping loss to Melbourne.
Despite a long-standing friendship with Mundine's father, former champion boxer Tony Mundine, Langlands declared Tony's [Anthony's] continual outbursts were driving him away from the Dragons.
Former champion front-rower Craig Young joined Langlands by calling for the club to place a permanent gag on the game's most controversial figure, while the Dragons' premiership-winning captain Norm Provan said from his home at Coloundra that he reached for a bucket when he heard Melbourne had posted 70 points. Langlands said: "I just think Tony (Anthony) should shut up, say 'no comment' and just play football.
"After reading what he said they would do to Melbourne, I was in a way glad that Melbourne thrashed them - and I played all my football with the club.
"His statements are just turning me off St George."
The gag was slapped on Mundine by Dragons chief executive Brian Johnson who revealed that only he, the coaching staff and co-captains Nathan Brown and Craig Smith would comment publicly until

their round-eight match against Newcastle.
Mundine bore the brunt of the criticism for the Dragons' humiliating 70-10 loss to the Storm, having said before the match that St George Illawarra, not Melbourne were the real champions of 1999.
Storm coach Chris Anderson said, on their own, Mundine's comments had little to do with Melbourne's performance but was not to say they were ignored. "At this level of professional sport there is a lot of pride of performance involved, " Anderson said. "To target the collective pride of a team, particularly one struggling for form, is fraught with danger."
Mundine's verbal attack on the Storm was the latest in a long line of outlandish comments from "The Man" that has the gifted pivot continually embroiled in controversy.
"It's just got to stop," Young said, who played 234 games for St George.
"The competition is that close - you can't afford to give your opponents any added advantages.
"At a desperate time, Chris Anderson must have thought it was Christmas."
The loss means St George Illawarra have won just one of their first five games - a scrappy six-point victory over the Cowboys.
While Melbourne players yesterday played down the impact Mundine's comments had on their preparation for the game, Langlands said it would have been all the motivation the struggling premiers needed.
"Chris Anderson would have had them (the comments) pinned up all over the dressing room," said Langlands, who played 227 games for St George.
Champion St George lock Johnny Raper added: "They should button their mouths up and start playing football.
"They've got to start from scratch again. It's going to be a long, hard road for the rest of the season."

Gold Coast Bulletin. Monday, March 6, 2000 Crossed the Line

IN the aftermath of Mel- bourne's 70-10 victory over StGeorge Illawarra there has been a lot of blame placed on Anthony Mundine over his comments last week that Melbourne were not true premiership champions.
To blame Mundine is merely superficial. I think we need to look past that and analyse what is really wrong with the Dragons. Afterall, it is a team sport.
The reality is that anything Mundine said wasn't worth 60 points so we can't put the blame entirely on his shoulders.
There is a lot of speculation about about inner turmoil in the club but I'm close to a lot of the players and there is animosity and no turmoil.
I know all the players are fine about his outspoken ways. But this is the first time he's been portrayed as having a go at the opposition. That's where he crossed the line, bringing the teams into it rather than just talking about himself.

That's why the club slapped a media ban on him and that's good.
The Dragons certainly don't seem to have the spirit they need to win games, their concentration is way down and I really believe it stems from the fact they've lost six players who had more than 600 first grade games between them.
Those players -Rod Wishart, Paul McGregor, Brad Mackay and, I guess, myself - were able to bring a bit of cool headedness into the side when the chips were down.

Some of the younger guys are still learning what it's like to play first grade football.
I PERSONALLY feel for Nathan Brown who is having a tough time in his first year as captain.
His predicament reminds me of my first year as captain in 1994 after we lost the grand final.
I know what Nathan must be feeling like because in my season we beaten by Manly 61-0.
St George Ilawarra are such a proud club you'll get all the legends saying Friday night's loss is pathetic, so there is a lot of pressure on Nathan in his first year.
S0 the question is, what is going wrong? I think the Dragons have to go back to the basics and do the basic things properly.
The play the ball and ruck defence has been very ordinary all year so we need to go back and fix the little things.

'The reality is that anything Mundine said wasn't worth 60 points'

- Mark Coyne

REFEREE & TOUCH JUDGES have been the sacred cows of football commentary for as long as anyone can remember. RL fans constantly jeer these necessary evils of the game. Commentators on the other hand will witness many bad calls before uttering some forgettable statement. This may be for fear of prosecution or it could be that we are suppose to let life go on and quietly turn a blind eye to these refereeing blunders and baffling decisions. The adjudicators on the field have often been spot-on. However, there are times when they are lacking in competence and some are just too plain lazy to do their job properly. At worse, some have been corrupt and history shows this to be case in this unspoken area of the game. The tally of blatant errors is not meant to be a witch-hunt on any particular referee. Afterall, most are good people who try hard to improve their skills. But they should not be above critical analysis.
This is a list of errors which most people would have seen, either watching the game on TV or live at the match.

REFEREE: Bill Harrigan

When	Description	Team advantaged by Ref error
6th minute	Late knee charge on Luke Patten by Robbie Ross in Saints in-goal. Ross goes in with knees and this results in Patten leaving the field, injured and unable to return. I thought Refs penalised players for crap like this.	Melb
7th minute	Lavea scores for Melb. He does not ground ball. Ref does not go to Vid Ref. Ref awards try despite appeals.	Melb
9th minute	Ref penalises Bartrim for 'having the hand on the ball whilst tackling'. The ball was not dislodged. Play was not disrupted and yet the Ref decided 12 minutes into the match to give a petty penalty without warning. Melb have done the same several times and it only be assumed that Ref has shown bias.	Melb
10th minute	Penalty to Saints against Melb for pushing as Melb fumble ball over Saints' tryline. Can't see any pushing here.	Saints
13th minute	Hill for Melb runs from dummy half and sets up Melb try. Hill uses offside players to shield him from Saints' markers and should have called back for shepherding. There is no reaction from Ref.	Melb
18th minute	Andrew Hart is lifted above the horizontal by two Melb tacklers, one with an arm between Hart's legs and he is spear tackled. Although he is apparently not hurt and got straight back up, this is an illegal & dangerous tackle. There is little reaction from the local and largely uneducated crowd and this seems to influence the commentators, Ref and Touchies who all go about their business as if nothing has happened. I have seen similar incidents gain the appropriate reaction thanks to the power of the crowd. At best the Ref and Touch Judges are showing inconsistency.	Melb
62nd minute	Ref unusually calls forward pass against Melb but on this occasion it isn't forward	Saints
65th minute	Melb strip ball in 3 man tackle in front of touch judge. Saints get ball back but penalty was warranted as there was no advantage gained and this is inconsistent.	Melb

Total Referee or Touch Judge errors = 8
Errors in favour of Saints = 2
Errors in favour of Melbourne = 6
Penalty Count: Saints 5 - Melb 7
Comments: The first thing I noticed about this match was Bill Harrigan. Bill's prejudice against the Dragons is becoming legendary. More than that, I just don't like Bill's style of refereeing. He is getting old now and makes errors. Importantly, he just doesn't like penalising teams for offside. Teams like Melb play well when Bill is around.
Bill Harrigan should retire. He simply cannot police the offside rule. He misses countless forward passes. He treats the players like children. The only good things you can say about Bill is that he lets the game flow and is not prone to blowing the whistle.
He is a great loss to Rugby Union
Overall rating: 4 out of 10

-Cal

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