Match Details
Match Date	26th Aug, 2018
Opponent	St George Illawarra
Result	Win 38-0
Coach	Dean Pay
Captain	Josh Jackson
Venue	Kogarah (Jubilee Oval)
Crowd	12,436
Referee	Ben Cummins Henry Perenara

James Graham was so frustrated he kicked a hole in an advertising hoarding. As for Ben Hunt, he just didn’t know what type of kick to put in. And Paul McGregor? He’s just kicking more stones as the Dragons’ top four hopes went up in flames on a horror afternoon.

A team which has spent all bar a couple of weeks in one of the plum spots kissed a September double chance goodbye on perhaps the most deflating afternoon of a season spiralling quickly out of control, embarrassed 38-0 by a resurgent Bulldogs at Jubilee Oval.

And to add insult to injury, the retiring Jason Nightingale, in his first game back from a neck complaint, failed to finish the match with a dislocated elbow and in all likelihood has played the last game of his decorated career.

It added to concerns over Euan Aitken (torn hamstring) and Cameron McInnes (concussion).

St George Illawarra had just one man on the bench at full-time and now just one chance in the finals series. McGregor said he was ‘‘not happy’’, an understatement to how a bunch of unruly fans felt.

Nightingale was cheered as he walked up the Kogarah tunnel for one last time before a section of Dragons fans verbally unleashed on his teammates moments later. Security was briefly forced to step in.

‘‘It’s shattering, isn’t it,’’ McGregor said of the reception. ‘‘Disappointing [performance on the field]. It obviously didn’t go to script. We had a lot to play for on the back of Lance [Thompson] passing through the week, top four position, Jase’s farewell at Kogarah and last home game ... we just didn’t go out and get the job done.

‘‘We’ve got to work through this together and it starts at the top. It starts with me. It’s a collective thing and not an individual thing.’’

Eight-game Bulldogs five-eighth Lachlan Lewis looked every inch the million-dollar-a-season half Hunt was bought to be. He sat slumped on the ground at full-time, his teammates next to him in a huddle before he joined them.

Twenty-one-year-old Bulldogs flyer Reimis Smith bagged his first NRL hat-trick – two of which were 70-metre efforts off kick returns – as Canterbury racked up their biggest win over the joint venture.

McGregor’s men will need to win four straight games in September to claim their first premiership since 2010 unless the Bulldogs can beat the Sharks in the final round, coupled with the Dragons toppling the Knights and reversing a 47-point inferior differential.

Even in this wacky NRL end-ofseason world it just won’t happen as the Dragons plunged below the Panthers in sixth thanks to their diminishing for-and-against.

‘‘We’ve got a similar squad to what we had at the start of the year,’’ Dragons stand-in captain Tyson Frizell said.

‘‘That was no fluke. We’re going through a tough period at the moment and there’s no reason we can’t get back to that form.

‘‘We’ve got to move on quick and there’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves.’’

McGregor relegated Matt Dufty to the bench and reinstated Nightingale at fullback, but the pint-sized No.1 was called into action within the first quarter after Aitken limped off with a hamstring injury.

The Bulldogs kept the Dragons scoreless in the first half for the fourth straight week, and weren’t breached after the break either.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

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