BY CURTIS WOODWARD
The thing St George Illawarra Dragons doesn’t want to talk about might be rearing its ugly head again and we’re only two-and-a-half weeks into the new NRL premiership season.
Coach Shane Flanagan is sticking to his guns and backing Daniel Atkinson and his son, Kyle, to get the Dragons their first win of the season against Parramatta on Sunday afternoon despite both going into the game with ankle injuries.
The Dragons looks like a duck floating in a perfectly calm pond, but you know those little legs are working overtime under the water.
St George Illawarra are 0-2 and looked…fine…in big chunks of their losses to Canterbury and Melbourne but they’re just… there.
I’m sure they’re training the house down, smashing their KPI’s during the week and saying all the right things but they appear to be a team unwilling or unable to find another two or three gears against the better sides.
Three guys with true x-factor can’t crack the 19-man squad again this week with Lyhkan King-Togia, Loko Pasifiki Tonga and Tyrell Sloan named as reserves.
WESTS TIGERS FANS SHOULD BE EXCITED
We did notice Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne on social media post-match at Leichhardt waffling on about ‘orange jerseys’ and the old Balmain insinuations but I didn’t see that watching Wests Tigers crush the North Queensland Cowboys on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the eighth wonder of the world. It may have taken until 2026 but I only saw a young, unified team, full of their own juniors and a few superstar imports, enjoying being Wests Tigers.
The old comparisons will be made if Campbelltown is not full in a few weeks against the Knights but those comparisons have always been unfair.
Wests Tigers need to keep winning and the young families from a changing and evolving south-west Sydney demographic will flock to Campbelltown Stadium for the round six clash.
MAGUIRE BLITZKRIEG HAS GONE TOO FAR
The Brisbane Broncos may have a premiership hangover, and it could go on for a few more weeks but the pile-on from some in the media toward coach Michael Maguire has gone too far. It’s no secret Maguire doesn’t get on with a fair few mainstream journalists and some of that goes back to the way Maguire feels he was treated when he was sacked at South Sydney after leading them to a title in 2014 and some interesting dialogue between Maguire’s camp and said journalists after the Broncos won the premiership last year.
But it’s a very long season.
Brisbane will turn it around and when they do – they’ll be hard to beat.
I expect them to still make the top four.
XERRI POPPED AND TOLD TO “SUCK IT UP”
It’s hard to argue with Bulldogs legend Willie Mason who has told axed centre Bronson Xerri to “suck it up” after the 25-year-old was dropped to NSW Cup. Coach Cameron Ciraldo switched Xerri to the other side of the field in the off-season to accommodate skipper Stephen Chrichton who has apparently not gone too well with Xerri. “I had a chat to a couple of people… it is what it is,” Mason said on his Levels podcast.
“It’s not that big a deal from me talking to some people, they’re not happy with a bit of attitude and mindset, playing and training, you don’t just get dropped for nothing.”
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