Football Judges,
Should've stayed out on the back deck with the glass of cheeky Barossa Valley Shiraz and continued to view the spectacular distant lightning show as it swept across the south-western horizon without a sound, rather than step inside and watch a very tawdry affair on the unbliking eye.
If you thought Manly played dirty last week, you didn't reckon on the Saints.
Filth, filth & more filth.
Squirrel grips, Xmas holds, rabbit punches, not to mention the two blatant swinging forearms to the head of completely defenceless blokes going down in the tackle, both of which were just not seen by the muddle-headed half-blind wrong-footed Bamfords.
After being illegally attacked, Benji only just managed to get up on jelly legs, wobbled about for quite awhile, and played no useful part for the rest of the second half even though he stayed on the field.
The Moltzen Kiddie got a nasty one - as he was clearly getting special treatment on account of last year's off field unpleasantness - and was in la la land; so out of his tree he was in the next orchard.
And yet he also played on.
A clever plan on the part of the Dragons - lay out the opposition half-back and five-eighth on the sly, and try to get away with it, which they comprehensively did.
As the bloke on the TV commentary said "it's difficult to fathom so much foul play going un-noticed".
The on-field powers-that-be said not a word about it, of course, but you would have thought the Faceless Men on the Match Review Committee would have taken an interest in those two tackles, but, no.
Instead they throw the book at The Great Robbie Farah.
Absolutely fookin' gobsmacked.
Outrageous to think that one of the cleanest players in the caper, and certainly The Best Leb in the Game, could be threatened with a three week ban for a completely innocent unintentional accidental spear tackle with no harm done.
Beyond belief.
The first thing Farah did afterwards was apologise to the bloke for making the mistake, which he accepted, and that's where it should have ended.
But, no.
Fair enough about enforcing the rules re protecting the head and neck of the player carrying the ball, but really, if you go by that criteria, why did the pair of Saints goons get off scott free, without so much as a slap on the wrist?
It doesn't matter how much it costs, Robbie should just march on down to the league judiciary, trailing closely behind the best available QC on the night to argue his case, and then flip 'em the bird regardless of the outcome.
Joisus.
Seen everything in this game now.
Never been known as someone who goes on about it ad nauseum - who, me? - so let's go back to the game - where the rule-bound Bamfords constantly penalised the Tigers for inconsequential nit-picking technicalities - like not standing straight in the play the ball - what the??
SC Sheens on interview after the match admitted that he was "perplexed" by the refereeing, but added that "I've never known where I stand with the judiciary or the referees from day one", so obviously, he aint about to start trying now.
Let's face it, day one was a long time ago.
He's got bigger fish to fry.
The real problem, though, was Balmain were un-nerved by the tactics - and who can blame them after being so rudely roughed up like that - and they then sought unecessary revenge, and in the process took their minds off the game, stopped paying attention to the matter at hand, and in the meantime were outplayed by some old fashioned attacking rugby league producing regulation rugby leauge tries.
Outfoxed, simple as that.
Not nearly enough smarts, for mine.
Maybe the coach should give them some books to read.
SC Sheens would've paid the customary visit to the Football Office on Monday morning to see the Club Secretary in a quiet & sociable way, and have a chat over a cup of tea and a cream bun.
He would've opened the Coach's Ledger - which contains 26 rows in two columns, one headed "we'll take our wins" and the other "we'll learn from our losses" - scratched his mark in the loss column, then closed the book, and put it back on the Secretary's desk, where it belongs.
St Tim then would have announced his intention to thrash the team relentlessly on the training paddock this week while teaching them a few lessons, as the Secretary approvingly nodded his head while licking the crumbs from his lips.
There is no other way, oh, except for the Room Full Of Mirrors down on the Balmain Road, but it's too early in the season for that.
In the final paralysis, the late withdrawl of That Pom Ellis didn't help matters, no one could really say with any honesty that they played well, if the team had a game plan no-one could remember it, and they deserved to lose, which they did.
Not to worry.
The Super Coach is as aware as anyone that premiership winning teams don't play their best football in the first few weeks of a new season, and you'd be very worried if they did, and abruptly ended his post-match press conference by stating the bleeding obvious: "we've got a lot of work to do."
ST GEORGE-ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 36. Tries: Creagh, Fien, Hornby, Hunt, Rein, Vidot. Goals: Soward (6).
WESTS TIGERS 12. Tries: Reddy, Ryan. Goals: Marshall (2).
At Jubilee Oval, Kogarah.
Crowd: 18,726.
