Dragons setting the pace

PREMIERS Melbourne have declared St George Illawarra the NRL benchmark after their 34-14 humbling at the hands of the Dragons yesterday.

The Dragons blew the Storm off the park in the second-half and Storm coach Craig Bellamy conceded the ladder leaders had given his side a wake-up call.

While the Dragons won four tries to three, the Storm never really had any moments of ascendancy.

The Dragons’ goal-line defence was staunch – for the final 12 minutes of the first-half the Dragons had just four sets but they turned the Storm away on every occasion.

“What we took from today is they’re the benchmark,” Bellamy said. “We know now we’ve got some work to do. I’ve just said that to the players in there and hopefully they’ll take that on board.

“They are the benchmark without a doubt, they’ve been playing great footy all season. If we want to play some footy in September, we need to improve.”