Roosters 10 Dragons 0
IT TOOK a greasy, gripping smash-up - in driving rain, in which no points were scored in the first half, in which there were more mistakes than points - to send the message the NRL has been desperately looking for this centenary season.
French rugby union might have the cash. The UK Super League might pinch our players. But when it comes to September in Sydney, this game is king.
The Roosters snapped themselves back into form ahead of next Friday night in the first qualifying final against Brisbane with an absorbing 10-0 victory over St George Illawarra at the Sydney Football Stadium.
It took 45 minutes for the first points to come and they came, fittingly, for fullback Anthony Minichiello 11 weeks after being sidelined with a career-threatening neck injury.
The whisper was that Minichiello - not the Roosters - had been ultra-cautious in making his comeback. Back and neck injuries understandably make footballers jumpy.
But there he was, diving on the loose ball after Dragons players had fumbled a Roosters kick into the in-goal.
Every dropped ball added to the tension. Each was celebrated like a try as players slapped a teammate's back red raw when they'd forced an error.
Fittingly, the defining play of the game came from one with 19 minutes remaining when the ball squeezed out of the hands of Dragons prop Dan Hunt.
Roosters winger Sam Perrett provided a deft touch for five-eighth Braith Anasta to race 20m to score in the corner and give his side a 10-0 lead.
The points came late but the drama started early.
Last season, Willie Mason spent the off-season changing clubs, rubbing shoulders in the Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup and lounging around the pool in far north Queensland as Wendell Sailor rubbed suntan lotion into his back.
This year, he'll spend it rebuilding his right knee after being carried from the field in the 11th minute, his anterior cruciate ligament blown, his season buried.
Of course, Mason's myriad of detractors will say he hasn't been playing well enough for his loss to be noticed.
He was merely the first wreck in the carnage of last night.
As Mason left the field, prop Mark O'Meley was being placed on report for a high shot on Dragons opposite Jason Ryles. It only filled Shrek's nostrils with the scent of blood. Minutes later, he lined up teammate Anthony Cherrington, who was making a tackle, and hammered him.
Clearly fearing O'Meley, Dragons five-eighth Ben Rogers decided to slam into another immovable object - an advertising sign - when he slid over the dead-ball line following a Roosters kick in-goal.
But the most ferocious smash-up came in the 28th minute when Roosters centre Setaimata Sa collided with Dragons back-rower Ben Creagh off the ball and bodies went flying like ten pins.
Creagh looked like the drunkest man at the party as he left the field. He was later seen shaking in the Dragons rooms. Team officials were shaking their head that referee Shayne Hayne had not placed Sa on report.
The form of these two sides in the second half of the season highlights the weight of expectation.
After carrying it for years, the Dragons were suddenly unshackled when coach Nathan Brown was told this would be his last season and the Dragons blew out to $51 in premiership betting.
Despite last night's loss, comparisons are being made between his side and that of Roy Masters' team from 1983. Masters was on the verge of being sacked midway through the season but his players rallied around their coach. "The pressure was off," Masters recalls.
The Dragons won their next six matches and reached the minor semi-final, only to fall to Canterbury.
Conversely, Brad Fittler could do no wrong until his side set the pace early in the season. Expectation set in and his side folded like deckchairs. It needed to win last night to finish in the top four.
Indeed, there was something in the air at the SFS last night and something more than the driving, swirling rain that never abated.
It's September. The finals are here. The stakes have been raised and it could never have been more evident when Anasta looked at Sailor deep in the first half and screamed: "F--- off, you fat head."
That's right: he called him "fat head". League's back, baby.
SYDNEY ROOSTERS 10 (B Anasta, A Minichiello tries; C Fitzgibbon goal) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 0 at Sydney Football Stadium. Referee: S Hayne.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff