Dragons’ hopes may be shot

ST GEORGE Illawarra’s NRL season is officially on the skids after it was handed its biggestever loss at Kogarah, flogged 38-0 by its arch-nemesis Canterbury yesterday.

Beaten by the Bulldogs to end both their 2015 and 2017 campaigns, yesterday’s blow wasn’t as fatal but left the Dragons sixth and with their top-four hopes in tatters with just one round to play.

The record loss at the ground includes both the Dragons’ games there as St George before their merger and since joining Illawarra in 1999.

Centre Euan Aitken (hamstring), winger Jason Nightingale (elbow) and hooker Cameron McInnes (concussion) finished the game early, while No.1 Matt Dufty began the game on the bench after being bumped out of the fullback spot. The Dragons were their own worst enemies with 14 errors, and were booed off the field at halftime as they copped their second hammering by a bottom-eight team in three weeks.

Canterbury winger Reimis Smith scored a hat-trick, former Dragons Brett and Josh Morris both scored once while five-eighth Lachlan Lewis produced a kick for one try and forced four line dropouts.

A top-four team for all but one of the first 23 rounds, the Dragons can only return there if they beat Newcastle convincingly on Saturday and either Cronulla or South Sydney lose to bottom-eight opponents.

Dragons halfback Ben Hunt had a day to forget and was at one stage jeered by home fans.

“He’s just absolutely so low on confidence at the moment ... Origin footy, when he got dropped back to the bench for Game III has just zapped all his confidence,” rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns said.