St.George-Illawarra Dragons History

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In September 1998 the St.George and Illawarra clubs took the first famous steps and formed Rugby League's first successful merger. The club became known as the St.George-Illawarra Dragons. The Dragons use the famous St George Red V jersey with the Illawarra hoops on the sleeve along with Illawarra style shorts and socks. The famous traditions of St.George have been retained while the Illawarra will continue to see high class Rugby League at it's very best, which something they would not have been able to do with they didn't form the joint venture with St.George. The partnership was one that was going to work and both clubs had similar blood. St George until the 1960's were known as the "Illawarraites" (source NSWRL Finals book) and the great junior nursery in Wollongong before the Steelers entry into the Sydney premiership was mostly St George's.

St George entered the Sydney premiership in 1921. Considering the success and impact St.George has had on the game and the St George area, the opposition to its original bid to join the premiership seems incredible. Several requests were turned down before the persistence of the St George officials paid off. St.George could have been easily a foundation club but voted to remain with Rugby Union before switching in 1921. They lost their first match 4-3 to Glebe but were to become one of Australian and World sports truely great clubs and grab a large slice of sporting history that will never be broken when they won eleven straight premierships from 1956-66.

In total St George has won a total of 15 major premierships, five behind Sydney premiership foundation club South Sydney. Eleven of those 15 premierships were run in a remarkable era of sheer greatness and ability to remain at the top for so long. Leading the charge during their golden era included immortals John Raper Reg Gasnier and Graeme Langlands along with champion players Norm Provan, Ken Kearney, Johnny King, Eddie Lumsden, Billy Smith, Ian Walsh and Brian 'Poppa' Clay.

The last premierships St George were to win happened in 1977 and 1979 when Harry Bath coached St.George to a 22-0 grand final replay win against Parramatta after the original grand final was drawn 9-all and two years later a 17-13 victory against Canterbury. The teams were known as 'Bath's Babes' and included great Australian Internationals Craig Young and Rod Reddy. St George were to make four grand finals after the 1979 success but could not convert those opportunities into a premiership. Despite not winning a premiership for the past 20-years, they continued to be one of the leading and most supported clubs in the game.

Illawarra Steelers entered the Sydney to be expanded to NSW premiership in 1982 when the game slowly started to expand out of Sydney. The Wollongong area had been trying at various stages since 1959 to get a side into the Sydney premiership. It succeeded in 1982 when they were brought into the Sydney premiership along with the Canberra Raiders.

Despite the south coast being one of the truely great nursery and breeding ground for some of the greatest all time Rugby League players including immortal Bob Fulton, point scoring freak Michael Cronin and former St.George captains Graeme Langlands and Craig Young, Illawarra were never a success in their 17-year stand alone existence. Troubled with financial difficulties, the Steelers only made the semi-finals on two occasions, one of those being in 1997 when nearly everyone made the finals.

Four Internationals were produced by Illawarra in their 17-year history, locals Paul McGregor and Rod Wishart along with Queenslanders Alan McIndoe and Bob Lindner while they were with Illawarra. There best season was without doubt 1992 where they came within a whisker of making the grand final. In the end they were beaten 4-0 by St.George of all sides in the preliminary final to decide who play Brisbane in the big one.

St.George and Illawarra for the 1999 season decided to pool their resources and talents together to form a very powerful club. The best of both clubs were retained in the joint venture and already through a good part of 1999 it has been a huge success. The traditions of St George were kept alive while the people in the Illawarra have been made to feel a part of the Dragons new club and also the past feats achieved by St George that are second to none. With the traditions, support and success of St George moulded in with the tremendous growth nursery of the South Coast, the St George-Illawarra Dragons will have resources that will be the envy of any club.

Remarkably in their first season as a joint force, St George-Illawarra have made the grand final. It's been a dream fairy tale for the club and their supporters who made the hard sacrifice and enter into a joint association for the betterment of the game and their clubs in the long term. The fans have a new club maintaining many old traditions that they can be proud of. St George-Illawarra were to lose the grand final 20-18 to Melbourne Storm in a very controversial match.

The next five seasons were extremely inconsistent for the Dragons as they had the team on paper but couldn?t string good performances together on a weekly basis. However in 2005 under the coaching of Nathan Brown the corner has finally started to turn in a positive direction. The traditions of St George and Illawarra are alive and well in this side that has both sets of supporters united together as they attempt to relive the glory days of St George.

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